DUBAI // A 32-year-old man was sentenced to death on Wednesday for the murder of one of two men he sprayed with petrol and set alight.
Dubai Criminal Court found Pakistani D K guilty of premeditated murder, attempted murder and starting a fire in his company’s warehouse. However, he is still at large and was sentenced in absentia after not turning up to enter a plea in court on August 30.
The court was told that on February 9 at an SS Lootah construction site in Jebel Ali, D K sprayed his countryman A K, whose age was not given in records, with petrol then set him on fire with a lighter. A K was severely burnt and taken to hospital, where he remained in a coma for four days before he died.
D K also poured petrol on another colleague, fellow Pakistani S F, and set him on fire. However, S F, 35, was lucky as the fire took hold of a blanket he was wearing and he managed to escape unharmed.
Records show D K fled the country shortly after the incident.
S F testified that, on the day of the incident, D K came to the warehouse where he and the deceased were working together. He said D K sat with them for nearly an hour, chatting and laughing. “It was an absolutely friendly chat and he was very normal,” S F said. D K then left the warehouse, he said, but came back about 10 minutes later carrying a bucket.
“He started showering us and the warehouse materials and contents with the liquid from his bucket then struck his lighter and set A K, myself and the warehouse on fire,” S F said.
Police investigations could not find the reason behind the crime.
salamir@thenational.ae
