Manama: A newly-wed bride in Saudi Arabia who was paralysed in a car accident during her honeymoon has turned down 6 million riyals (Dh5.8 million) in compensation and insisted that the driver found guilty of reckless driving lose the use of both legs on grounds of retributive justice.
“My life is devastated and I have lost everything,” the woman, in her 20s, said. “There is nothing that will be just and fair except seeing the man who has caused all this to have the same fate,” she said, quoted by local Arabic daily Al Okaz.
Attempts by Judge Turki Bin Dhafer Al Qurni in the Red Sea city of Jeddah to bring the woman who was not named to change her attitude have not been successful.
She told the judge at a special session that the driver, a Saudi national, had offered her 6 million riyals in compensation to withdraw the case, but she refused and insisted on the eye for an eye retribution.
“I will not say that I wish I were dead because I truly believe in fate and in what God has written for me, but I also believe that justice has been ordained by God,” she said.
The judge however postponed his verdict, preferring to give both parties more time to reach an out-of-court settlement.
A special court reconciliation committee will use the grace period to help push for a compromise.
According to the police report, the young Saudi driver was speeding when he hit the woman. He was also guilty of reckless driving when he moved from a major road to a side street, the police said.
