One of the friends was an 18-year-old student.
Five men, who set ablaze the body of an Emirati heroin overdose victim, have each been jailed for one year.

The five friends -- including a 18-year-old Emirati student, another Emirati, and three Comoros Islands passport holders (one of them is a 23-year-old policeman) -- set a car on fire, with the victim's body inside for a cover-up on December 14 last year in Al Muraqqabat, the Court of First Instance was told.

The car, in which the victim's body was left, belonged to his mother. Three cars, which happened to be in the area, were damaged in the blaze.

The five men, including a runaway, who are referred to by the public prosecution as a gang, were found guilty of charges of hiding a body, arson, damage of private property, and putting others' lives at risk. The court ordered them to pay jointly a Dh62,400 fine and that those who hold a Comoros Islands passport be deported.

The victim's 52-year-old Emirati father said his son had been jailed for taking narcotics and released following a pardon on November 26, last year. "I picked him up from the Dubai Police anti-narcotics department two days later. Few minutes after we reached home, he went out to greet some relatives.

"He came back the next day and then drove his mother's car. He asked for some cash and a SIM card."

The father then advised his son to stay away from bad company and drugs. "Later on the same day, he called me asking me to send him a recharge mobile credit immediately. And that was it.

"He disappeared and we never heard from him ever since. On December 13 last year, I received a call from Al Muraqqabat police station to bring my son for the routine check-up."

The father continued to say, "My wife got a call from the police in the early morning of December 14 that her car was found burned down in the parking lot of a park in Abu Hail. A body was found inside the car."

The father then took a DNA test to see whether the body could be of a relative.

"On December 30, 2017, we learned the body was our son's. The car was worth about Dh60,000," he added.

A police officer said they had leads to the involvement of the five men. "The Emirati student said he met the victim in jail and they met again right after their release. He claimed the victim had drugs on him and passed out after injecting himself with heroin in Al Quoz area," the officer said.

SOURCE : KHALEEJTIMES