'Pimps stabbed man to death for harassing prostitutes'

DUBAI // Two alleged pimps are accused of stabbing a man to death because he was harassing their prostitutes.

The Vietnamese men, both aged 32, are charged with premeditated murder and with facilitating prostitution. They could not enter a plea at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday due to there being no translator.

Three Pakistanis, aged 20, 23 and 28, are also charged with physically assaulting the Vietnamese men, which they denied.

At 5pm on July 6 police received a report of a fight at the Moroccan Cluster of International City, so a patrol car was dispatched.

“When we arrived we found the dead body of a Pakistani man near the emergency exit, a bloodied knife was nearby and also the three Pakistani defendants were there and one of them was stabbed in the leg,” testified a 30-year-old Emirati police officer.

The officer added that he questioned the trio about the incident. They told him they went to the brothel with their friend, who was assaulted by two Vietnamese men.

“They said that the Vietnamese men got out of the brothel armed with knives and they engaged in a fight in which they assaulted two of them physically and then the two attacked the deceased and stabbed him repeatedly,” the officer said.

The Vietnamese men managed to escape but police identified them through camera footage and they were arrested the next day in Al Mutainah.

Police said the pair confessed to stabbing the man to death and injuring another in the leg.

“They said that they were assaulted first by the Pakistani men,” said the policeman.

The next hearing will be on December 8, where a Vietnamese translator will be present.

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