Dubai: A jobless man lost his appeal and will be jailed for 15 years for stabbing and killing a clubber with a broken bottle after a group brawl near a nightclub.

The 31-year-old Pakistani killer rushed to a petrol station, purchased two beverages and then went to fight a group of his countryman, who had earlier assaulted him in a nightclub in Al Rifa’a.

The accused handed a bottle to his friend to fight back before he broke his glass bottle, stabbed the victim in his neck, and killed him in March 2015.

In October, the Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of intentionally killing the victim, who had assaulted the killer earlier.

The accused appealed the 15-year jail term and sought to have it reduced when he pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Appeal Court and maintained that he defended himself.

“I had no previous intention to kill him. It happened unintentionally. I had been drinking alcohol in a nightclub and when I left the place, I saw seven men ganging up against my friend and beating him up. I intervened to stop the fight to save my friend, but those men assaulted me brutally … I do not remember what happened thereafter. I was too drunk to remember what happened. But I did not intend to kill the victim,” the defendant told the appellate court.

On Wednesday, presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm dismissed the defendant’s appeal and upheld his 15-year imprisonment.

The accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment.

An Egyptian worker at the station said he saw two groups of men fighting outside the nightclub. “I saw the accused walk into the store at the station in a rush and leaving instantly after he purchased two bottles. I knew that something bad was about to happen … so I called the police,” he testified.

A police lieutenant testified that the killer and two other suspects were identified from surveillance cameras in nearby buildings.

“Primary interrogations led to the arrest of the three men. The defendant was the main suspect … he claimed that the incident happened after he went to the nightclub with his friends to consume liquor. He said when he was still at the nightclub, a group fight erupted and he was beaten up. During the brawl, he purchased two Barbican beverage bottles … he gave one to his friend to use in the fight and kept the other one. Then he claimed that he broke the bottle and used the sharpened side and stabbed the victim in his neck. The defendant said he left the scene of the fight in a taxi before police arrested him later. He said he was outraged after he was beaten by the victim and his friends in the nightclub,” the lieutenant said.

Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.