Two former prisoners have told a Dubai court how they heard
police officers torture a fellow inmate before seeing this dead body lying face
down on the prison floor.
Thirteen Dubai police officers, including nine Emiratis, denied
the torture and murder of inmate during a hearing at the Criminal Court of
First Instance, The National reported.
The witnesses described how they and a fellow inmate, all
three of whom were arrested in May last year, were beaten by officers while in
the Naif police station in Dubai.
A doctor at the police morgue raised the alarm about the
death when he saw extensive bruising to his body, the court heard. A forensics
expert who examined the Pakistani national’s body said the bruises were likely inflicted
by sticks or bars and bare hands.
The beating caused his kidneys to fail while the cause of
death was bleeding to the brain.
“When I saw the deceased’s dead body, there wasn’t an inch
of it that didn’t have a bruise,” a senior prosecution official told The National.
The allegations against the defendants include torture and
unlawful detention, in addition to abuse of power, excessive use of force during
interrogation, forgery and giving a false statement.
The three inmates were arrested in connection with the
kidnapping and murder of a Pakistani man. Police said he disappeared last May
and his body was later found buried in Sharjah. No one has been charged with
the death, according to prosecution records.
The defendants are due to appear before court again on June
26.
The family of a British tourist who died in police custody
in Dubai in April accused officers of “torturing” him to death, a charge denied
by the police department.
Brown, 39, died on April 12 in Bur Dubai police station, six
days after his arrest on charges of assaulting a Nepalese housekeeper at the
city’s iconic Burj al-Arab hotel.
A post-mortem report revealed the British tourist suffered
irregular bruising on the left side of the forehead, as well as bruising on the
nose and on the inner arm.
The cause of death was specified as vomit obscuring the
respiratory tract. Blood and urine tests revealed traces of hashish in the
blood of the deceased, the report said.