Unemployed Emirati charged with attempted murder

Defendant stabbed Nigerian victim multiple times

An unemployed Emirati man has been charged with attempted murder after repeatedly stabbing a man outside a nightclub.

Dubai Criminal Court heard how the incident happened when the victim unintentionally bumped into a female friend of the accused.

The two men began fighting in the street and witnesses described seeing the defendant pull a knife from his pocket.

Police were called to the scene but the 22-year-old Emirati had fled. He was arrested hours later at a hotel in Oud Metha where he admitted to the stabbing but claimed self-defence.

“He told us that the victim was the first to take out a knife and brandish it in his face,” a policeman told the hearing.

The vicious assault happened in the early hours of October 15 last year.

A taxi driver outside the nightclub told how two of the defendant’s female friends had hailed his cab to leave. But as he was about to pull away, the victim had thrown himself in front of his car.

“They asked me to move off quickly but I refused and called police when I saw the victim bleeding,” the Bangladeshi driver said.

Detectives said the defendant was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the stabbing.

Medical reports on the Nigerian victim showed he had suffered multiple stab wounds to the abdomen.

A verdict is expected on February 28.