DUBAI // A 21-year-old unemployed defendant admitted to assaulting a man and putting him in a coma for 20 days, a Dubai court heard this morning.
The mother of the Emirati defendant MG was present at the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance and told the judge her son did not mean any harm.
According to records, MG was walking drunk near Rami Hotel in Al Muraqqabat area about 3am on February 2, 2010, when he saw the victim AA, 37, from Somalia.
Prosecutors said he started insulting AA before slapping him and knocking him down. AA testified he did not recall anything after that point and that he only woke up 20 days later to find himself in a hospital, where he had been unconscious.
HM, a forensics expert at the Dubai Police, testified the victim was severely injured and arrived at the hospital with a broken skull and bleeding in the brain caused by his head hitting the pavement.
HM added that surgery to remove a part of the broken skull was carried out to ease the bleeding. Two months afterward, the removed part of the skull was returned, but missing pieces left the man’s brain unprotected.
MG admitted during investigations he had been drinking and did not mean to assault AA. He will be referred to the Court of Misdemeanours on charges of illegal consumption of alcohol.
The next hearing was scheduled for April 12.
salamir@thenational.ae
