NEWS FROM THE UAE
Source : The National

Son ‘stabbed father to death as he prayed’

ABU DHABI - FEB. 14: An Asian car repair shop worker, who argued with his father over money, stabbed him to death as he prayed, police said yesterday.

A 21-year-old man, identified as MMS, told detectives that he killed his father, 52-year-old MSA, because he refused to give him “a few dirhams”.

Police said the victim was stabbed seven times with a kitchen knife in the stomach and back.

“When I walk up in the shop’s attic where I live, I saw my father praying in the shop,” MMS was said to have told officers. “Then I took a knife from the fridge and ran downstairs and hit my father three times in the stomach. Then he knelt and I stabbed him four times in the back.

“I threw the knife and held him strongly to my chest so he wouldn’t move, so he can die in my hands.”

Major Juma al Kaabi, the head of homicide at the Criminal Investigation Department of Abu Dhabi Police, said the suspect had been involved in several quarrels with co-workers in the past.

“He was admitted to hospital for 15 days,” said Major al Kaabi.

“He suffers from multiple mental illnesses.”

Under the penal code, if mental incompetence is established, a suspect would not face trial but would be kept in a mental health facility.

Otherwise, the suspect could face a life sentence or death, if the murder was premeditated.

MSA worked and lived with his son and two other workers in the car repair shop.

The two workers told investigators they saw the suspect holding his bleeding father then overpowered him and called the police.

The police did not disclose the date and location of the incident

Safety fears over abandoned cars

ABU DHABI - FEB. 14: Hundreds of abandoned cars in Mussafah are a threat to public safety, experts say.

In an area known for its numerous car repair centres, among other industries, many vehicles have simply been left by the roadside. Some have been cannibalised for spare parts, while others have been badly damaged in accidents. All appear to have been eroded by the passage of time.

The hulks would not be an issue if they were collected “in the middle of nowhere”, away from homes and businesses, said Afschin Soleimani, the associate director and fire engineer at the energy consultants Ramboll.

But in a city on the outskirts of the capital, they were subject to vandalism, and constituted a hazard to nearby buildings in the event of a fire, he added.

“Cars, including its fuel, could be set on fire, which could spread to an adjacent property,” Mr Soleimani warned.

“Such fire would be even more of a concern if the car is placed near industrial areas, which could have combustibles placed outside the building.”

Fuel and other fluids left in the cars for too long would be harmful to the environment, Mr Soleimani added.

Shopkeepers said the municipality had been more vigilant in recent months in getting rid of the vehicles.

The municipality declined to comment, but one official confirmed that it had stepped up efforts to move the vehicles, especially where they created road congestion or were an eyesore.

“Many were taken away. We placed warnings on those cars which have plates on them,” the official said.

“If the car is taken away, the owner can still claim it in the municipality, but they have to pay a fine. They have to claim it soon, though, because it does not stay with us forever.”

Some of the cars in Mussafah last week had notices from the municipality warning that they would be towed within 24 hours if they were not removed by their owners. However, the notices were dated either January 26 or 31.

According to the law, a car left in a public parking area or on the road for more than 14 successive days will be removed.

Car repair shop owners said the problem was made worse by smaller premises that did not have room to park cars inside to remove useful parts. They were using street space to strip down vehicles.

On the street where one workshop is located, there are two dozen abandoned cars illegally parked on the left side of the road.

People working in other businesses on the block said there used to be at least three times more cars, but the municipality had towed most of them.

A Ford Taurus with no plates sat near a junction. It was old and dusty, its front windows smashed and blackened. The inside was ruined.

Most of the cars nearby were filled with sand and sported bald tyres, planted in centimetres of dust. Only few had plates.

A Range Rover with a Dubai plate and a municipality tow notice was parked in front of the workshop. Staff said a Lebanese man left the car eight months ago to be fixed. The exterior was unblemished. Inside sat a pile of laundry, including T-shirts, shirts and ties.

Kifourk Siyufi, a 30-year-old mechanic from Syria, said his workshop fixed the car. The repairs cost more than Dh6,000 (US$1,600). Mr Siyufi estimated the car to be worth Dh10,000.

“At the beginning, he said he would come back and pay the money the following week. Then he started to buy time and finally stopped picking up his mobile,” said Mr Siyufi.

The municipality would still fine the workshop, as much as Dh10,000, no matter who the car belonged to, said Mr Siyufi.

Under the law, workshops that buy cars for parts are required to have a place inside their workshop for the vehicles or park them in an organised way.

Shops must send the cars to be scrapped at factories, which also will buy the vehicles directly from their owners for a few hundred dirhams. Scrapped cars are then sent to Sharjah for recycling.

Handling scrap in an ad hoc manner was dangerous, experts said. Not far away from Mr Siyufi’s workshop, a four-litre can, one-third full of engine oil, sat in a dilapidated car.

Freddy Lama, a mechanical engineer at Nova electromechanical contracting company, said it was “rare” for a car to catch fire on its own. The main concern should be the city’s image, he added.