Dubai rent collector accused of issuing death threat to tenant

Dubai: A Dubai rent collector went on trial at the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday for allegedly threatening to kill a woman’s husband over a rent dispute.

According to official records, the 37-year-old defendant was responsible to collect the monthly rent of a “sharing” villa at the Al Muraqqabat area in Deira.

In July this year, he is said to have contacted the 51-year-old Pakistani tenant about paying up the Dh2,800 monthly rent.

“It is a sharing villa where six families lived inside. I’m the one in charge to collect the money and give it to him,” said the Pakistani man in official records.

“I told him that I had not got my salary from my company and asked him to wait for a few days so I could arrange the money. But he kept making phone calls to me,” the man said, adding that he stopped answering the calls at one point.

The defendant, also a Pakistani, is said to have then gone to the villa where the man’s wife opened the door along with her son.

“He threatened me. He said that he will kill my husband if we didn’t pay the rent and that he [her husband] needed to leave to Pakistan,” the 41-year-old Pakistani wife said in records.

The Pakistani man reported the incident to Dubai Police.

According to Dubai Public Prosecution, the defendant admitted to issuing the threat during investigation.

The next trial has been scheduled for October 14.