DUBAI // Two labourers who beat a colleague to death with an iron bar in a row over an unsettled loan have been sentenced to death.
The Criminal Court acquitted a third man accused of aiding and abetting the pair.
MG, 27, and RN, 21, both from Bangladesh, beat RAA to the ground in an abandoned area on Al Manama Road before smashing his skull with the bar after he demanded they return Dh3,500 he had lent one of them.
They then stole his mobile phone, wallet and a pack of cigarettes before leaving his corpse in the sand to decay.
Police found the body a few days later with the murder weapon alongside. A forensics report found the dead man had suffered severe injuries to the head, neck and torso during the beating, which took place on June 16, 2011.
The men were living at the same labour camp before the man's death.
The dead man's brother SA, 23, told prosecutors that his brother had leant one of the labourers Dh3,500 two months before he was killed. He said the labourer had refused to repay the loan and that this caused friction between them.
"On the day of the incident, the labourer returned to the camp but my brother didn't. When I asked he denied seeing my brother but seemed very tense," recalled the brother.
Prosecutors said that during their investigations the men confessed to plotting the murder.
During their trial at the Criminal Court, both labourers admitted fighting with their colleague, but claimed they had not meant to kill him.
The verdict is subject to appeal within 15 days.
salamir@thenational.ae
