DUBAI: A student who injected his countryman with a heroin overdose appeared in court on Sunday with two fellow students implicated in hiding the countryman’s body.

The Emirati student, 19, injected the deceased (H) with a syringe of heroin that caused his death. He summoned both his peers who helped him hide the body on Aug.31.2017.

One of the peers was found to be under the influence of methamphetamine and amphetamine, according to records at Al Hebab Police Station. They denied all charges in court on Dec.12.

On Sunday their three lawyers told the Criminal Court that there was no criminal intent and that the claim that the body was hidden is incongruous because it was found inside a car on the roadside.

The lawyers begged for utmost mercy and said the “tender-aged” students fled upon seeing their friend die in a nightmarish way.  The sudden death traumatised them. The verdict will be on Feb.11.

An Emirati lieutenant, 29, said H was reported missing by his family after he failed to return to his home in Al Warqaa. Officers assigned to look for him contacted his friends (The student’s peers). Both claimed they knew nothing about his whereabouts. The following day H’s body was discovered on the driver seat of his car ditched in the sand in Al Hebab area metres away from the main road.

Hours later, both peers showed up at the police station and revealed they were with the student. The first one said the student contacted him at around 10pm and told him H had died inside the car.

The student upon arrest said he was with H consuming drugs when H got exhausted and asked him to drive. Shortly after taking the driver seat he noticed H could no longer talk. He had passed away.

He contacted both peers and summoned them to the scene. They met around 2am. The second one told the police it was the student who proposed that they take the body in Al Hebab and abandon it.

They went there and carried the body to the driver seat. The student collected all syringes from the car along with H’s mobile phone. He disposed of them on their way back from Al Hebab.

The student during further questioning argued that he did not facilitate consumption to H nor inject him with any syringe. However, both his peers said he had told them he injected H with the syringe.

And that he told them that when he noticed H’s condition was deteriorating, he injected him with citric acid in an attempt to resuscitate him. Unfortunately, H did not respond to the attempt.

The trio revealed that they decided to get rid of the body and also conceal circumstances behind the death. The second one drove the car until behind a sand dune near a highway.