Hassan Yajori lost his second appeal at Dubai’s Court of Appeal. DUBAI POLICE

A 19-year-old Israeli man will serve life in jail for stabbing a 33-year-old man outside a café in Dubai’s Business Bay area. Hassan Yajori lost his second appeal at Dubai’s Court of Appeal, which upheld his life sentence for the premeditated murder of his Israeli compatriot Ghassan Shamsyeh. A life sentence in the UAE is equivalent to 25 years in jail. The court also upheld his deportation order and referred the victim’s parent’s civil lawsuit against him to the Dubai Civil Court. A hearing is expected to be scheduled soon. Earlier this week, Dubai’s Court of Appeal acquitted five other Israelis in the case, citing insufficient evidence against them and overturning their sentence of 10 years in jail for aiding and abetting the 19-year-old in the May 24, 2023 incident. The court maintained that Yajori planned to kill Shamsyeh, whom he stabbed to death with a knife. His lawyer argued that what ensued was due to “self-defence” and claimed that the victim initiated the assault by hurling a chair at the 19-year-old at the café near the Dubai Water Canal in Business Bay. A waiter who witnessed the attack said Yajori and his group had visited the café two days in a row before the incident, and that on the day of the attack, the group chased the victim after the latter arrived at the cafe during lunch time. The waiter testified that Yajori stabbed Shamsyeh with a knife from his pocket, while five others stopped the victim’s friend. Shamsyeh was able to flee to a car park and lock himself in a car before he died. According to a forensic report, he sustained a 5cm stab wound to his heart. According to Dubai Police, the deadly attack “stemmed from an ongoing dispute between two families”. Police tracked down and arrested the group in less than 24 hours after the murder. ICA/Expat Media
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