Dubai: A porter has been accused of killing his friend by stabbing him in the neck after the deceased refused to give him Dh200 to buy new clothes.

The 20-year-old Pakistani porter, K.M., was said to have been saving money with his countryman but when the latter did not give him [K.M.] Dh200 out of the Dh7,000 that he had been saving with him, he attacked him at a parking lot in July.

The parking’s attendant found the victim and reported the police, said records.

Prosecutors accused K.M. of intentionally killing the victim, identified as M.J.

When he showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday, K.M. pleaded not guilty and said he acted in self-defence.

The prosecutors said the defendant used a knife and stabbed M.J. and that he had intended to kill him.

“I did not intend to kill him … he is the one who attacked me and I defended myself. We met in the parking and he took out the knife and tried to stab me first. I was defending myself when the knife hit him and he dropped dead,” the suspect told presiding judge Shaikha Hamad.

The Afghan attendant told the prosecutors that he was parking a client’s vehicle when he spotted the victim on the ground.

“Initially I thought he was sleeping … I flashed the high beam and sounded the horn but he remained motionless. I got out from the car and when I walked towards him I noticed that there was a pool of blood under him … blood covered his clothes as well. I reported the matter to police instantly,” he testified to prosecutors.

A police lieutenant said police interrogated M.J.’s relatives and friends but nothing could be discovered.

“Further interrogations revealed that the suspect had asked his supervisor at work to give him his passport urgently … thereafter we suspected that K.M. must have been connected to the murder. The supervisor cooperated with us and arranged to meet the defendant, who was apprehended in Naif. During questioning, the suspect alleged that he had saved up to Dh7,000 with M.J., who was his roommate as well. He claimed that on the day the incident happened, he met the victim to take Dh200 from him to buy new clothes as he wanted to celebrate Eid Al Fitr. K.M. claimed that M.J. refused to give him the money and they had a heated argument. The victim took out a knife that he had hidden under his clothes and tried to stab him. The suspect alleged that he evaded the knife but sustained a cut in his hand … then he took away the knife from the victim and stabbed him back in self-defence,” the lieutenant testified to prosecutors.

Presiding judge Hamad said the court will appoint a lawyer to defend K.M. when it reconvenes on October 23.