Dubai: A student, who attacked two employees with a sword and chopped off their fingers in a road rage incident, has had his case dropped after having reconciled with the victims.

In February, the Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced in absentia the 20-year-old Emirati student for one year in jail for attacking the three Pakistani employees after he blocked their way at a traffic signal in June.

The defendant jumped out of his sports utility vehicle and attacked the Pakistani trio with a sword in the middle of Al Maktoum Street. Two Pakistanis lost one finger each while attempting to dodge the sword attacks and avoid being killed.

Following the incident, the Emirati walked into a police station and claimed that he had been attacked at the traffic signal and hurt.

The policeman asked the defendant to go to the hospital and get a medical report to pursue legal action against his assailants.

The Emirati went to the hospital but never returned to the police station.

After he was sentenced in absentia, the defendant surrendered himself to court and requested a retrial, during which he provided the presiding judge with a written waiver that he obtained from the victims.

The court dropped the criminal case against the defendant for having reconciled with the claimants.

Dubai Police’s operation room was notified that the defendant had attacked three men and two of them were seriously injured and had lost their fingers.

One employee had a left-hand finger chopped off, while another had a right-hand finger chopped off and two other fingers partly severed, showed records.

A 24-year-old victim said he was driving his vehicle on the proper lane when the accused tossed a cigarette into his car.

“The student drove his car parallel to my vehicle and tossed a cigarette in … I did not react because it was obvious that he was picking on us and trying to provoke us into fighting with him. When we reached the traffic signal, he suddenly swerved his car towards my lane and slammed the brakes. He and two others from their car got out and attacked us without any provocation. The student then took out a sword and attacked me … I lost a finger when I tried to defend myself,” he said.

A 27-year-old employee, who was also attacked, said when the passengers of the other car tried to chase them [Pakistani trio], they ran away. “We ran away and hid for nearly two minutes until the assailants left. When we returned to our car, we found the chopped fingers on the ground. We called the police and we were rushed to the hospital,” he testified.

A policeman said when he questioned the accused about what had happened, he claimed that the trio attacked him first and tried to stab him with a knife.

“He said he took the knife away from them and defended himself. He gave contradicting statements,” said the policeman.