One dead, one seriously injured in Chinese gang fight, Dubai court hears

Police identified the men fighting in a dispute over bootlegging after a tenant captured the fight on video from his apartment.

DUBAI // A fight between two rival gangs, captured on video, left one dead and one seriously injured, a Dubai court heard on Tuesday.

A video shot by a tenant whose apartment overlooks the car park where the fight took place captured the moment dozens of Chinese men gathered at 9pm on March 23 last year armed with axes and metal bars.

The fight lasted for 10 minutes before some gang members were seen dragging two severely injured men into a car before fleeing the scene.

A witness contacted police and patrols and an ambulance arrived on the scene, at International City, where they found the two injured men in a car.

“One was already dead and the other barely alive,” said a 27-year-old Emirati police lieutenant.

The officer said blood was everywhere in the car park and they found an axe, a sword and a metal bar with a sharp end.

The tenant’s video led police to identify 19 members of the two gangs.

Sixteen arrests were made but three men remain at large, with at least one of them fleeing the country to Oman.

During police questioning, a number of the men confessed to taking part in the fight after one of the men still at large, a gang leader, told them to do so because the other gang was taking over their bootlegging business.

Witnesses testified to seeing a large number of Chinese men arriving in cars at the time of the incident, after which loud noises and screams were heard around the neighbourhood.

“I was at the balcony when I saw several cars arrive and a large number of Chinese men armed with axes and bars stepping out of them,” said the 38-year-old Egyptian who filmed the fight.

A Yemeni driver who was having dinner at a nearby restaurant also told prosecutors that he heard screams and, when he went to check, he saw the fight.

“They were all armed and almost all of them [were] covered in blood,” said the 50-year-old.

Police said some of the men were arrested in the mountains of Fujairah, after a joint operation with that emirate’s force.

The defendants, aged between 19 and 47, did not show up in court on Tuesday.

All 16 of them are charged with assault that led to the death of a man and with physical assault that caused injuries to another.

The next hearing will be on March 26.