Dubai: A holidaymaker has been accused of getting drunk and beating a policeman after he disembarked from an plane, heard a court on Thursday.
Aviation authorities at the Dubai International Airport were said to have deplaned the 22-year-old Saudi holidaymaker because he was too drunk in December.
When police were called in and asked to walk the 22-year-old away, according to records, the latter turned violent and assaulted the policeman who was accompanying him.
The Saudi was also believed to have beaten the policeman when he tried to put him in detention cell.
Prosecutors charged the suspect with consuming alcohol and assaulting a policeman on duty.
The Saudi suspect pleaded not guilty when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.
“Did you get drunk and assault the policeman?” presiding judge Urfan Omar asked the 22-year-old.
“I was very drunk and I was not aware of my actions. I had completely blacked out … did not realise anything around me. When I regained my consciousness inside the detention, I was told that I had assaulted a policeman. I was drunk,” the 22-year-old argued before presiding judge Omar.
The assaulted policeman told prosecutors that the incident happened after the suspect was removed from the plane.
“While I was trying to convince the suspect to walk into the confinement cell, he took me by surprise and punched me. Then when we tried to handcuff the suspect, he resisted ferociously,” the policeman testified to prosecutors.
Medical reports said the policeman sustained a swollen cheek.
The suspect’s lawyer will present his defence when the court reconvenes on January 29.
