Man charged in UAE for endangering lives with toxic gas cylinders

Sharjah - The police found four gas cylinders outside a plot in the area.

The Sharjah Shariah Court has charged an Egyptian carpenter in his fifties for endangering life of 77 people and causing damage to the environment by moving hazardous material without taking the necessary safety measures or getting permission from legal authorities.
According to the prosecution records, the carpenter removed four cylinders containing chlorine gas from a plot which he was entrusted with cleaning. Some workers cut open the cylinder and caused a gas leak, endangering the lives of others.
On July 18, the Sharjah Police received information that three people suffered suffocation due to inhalation of some unknown gas in Sharjah Industrial Area No. 10. The police patrols, ambulance and civil defence officials rushed to the site and found that many workers in a labour accommodation were having illness due to inhalation of some gas. The workers were rushed to the Kuwaiti Hospital and Al Qasimi Hospital.
The police found four gas cylinders outside a plot in the area. As the police tried to bury the gas cylinders, they also fainted due to inhalation of the gas, and were rushed to the hospital.
The accused told the police officials that he was asked to clean the site by a company and an engineer was present when he was given the duty. He found a lot of garbage on the site, including the four gas cylinders. Without knowing the content of the cylinder, he moved them out from the site.
After some time, he saw two Asian workers cutting one of the cylinders. However, when the gas started leaking, they fled the scene.
The accused told Khaleej Times that he is uneducated and didn't know the cylinders contained toxic gas. After presenting his defence at the court, the father of five children said he did not have a lawyer and was helped by a relative to prepare the defence argument. Officials from the Sharjah Police and civil defence told the court that they were rushed to the hospital due to suffocation after inhaling the gas.
Owner of the plot, a former officer with the Dubai Police, said during police interrogation that he purchased the land from someone and he did not visit the site. He also said he did not know anything about the gas cylinders.
During the police interrogation, an official with the main contracting company said that the gas cylinders did not belong to the company and they handed over the site to the sub-contracting company, for which the Egyptian accused was working.
The accused told the court that he was asked by the company to guard the site and he saw the cylinders while cleaning. "I just removed the cylinders out from the site without knowing its content. When the police asked me about the incident, I told them the truth about what had happened. I was really shocked when the police asked me for my ID and then detained me," he said. Later, he was released on bail.
As per the directives from the court, the Sharjah Municipality submitted a report about the effects of inhaling chlorine gas. The report said inhalation of the gas would cause breathing problems, cough, irritation on throat, eyes and skin, vomiting and headache. A high level of exposure to chlorine gas could be fatal, said the report.
Almost everybody, who were affected by the gas inhalation, sought legal action on the incident. Officials from the Sharjah Civil Defence and police and four others testified during the police investigation.
The accused is facing charges of endangering people's lives and damaging the environment, which stipulate that he would be sentenced to minimum one year in jail and a minimum fine of Dh50,000 if found guilty.
amira@khaleejtimes.com

• Sharjah