Man who choked policeman on Palm Jumeirah after chase is jailed

Vietnamese man who had overstayed his work visa ran from an officer and then attacked him when he caught up.

DUBAI // A man who knocked a policeman to the ground and choked him after handing over an ID card belonging to someone else has been sentenced to nine months in jail.

The 38-year-old, from Vietnam, was stopped by the 23-year-old officer on October 30 last year as part of a routine check on Palm Jumeirah workers’ identification cards.

The defendant handed over his ID then ran away.

“I checked the ID and saw it belonged to a different person. He immediately started running and I chased him. When I caught up with him, he kicked me and I fell down. Then he strangled me,” the officer said.

A colleague came to his aid and pulled the defendant away from the officer.

“I grabbed him from the back and pushed him away from my colleague then called for back-up,” said the 47-year-old policeman. The defendant, he said, had told him he had run away because he was scared after overstaying his work visa.

The man confessed to using an ID belonging to someone else and impersonation but denied assaulting a police officer.

He was convicted of assault but found not guilty of impersonation. He will be deported after serving his prison term.