Dubai: A lawyer blamed cultural differences while defending his client, who is charged with flashing his middle finger in public in the faces of two plain-clothes policemen.
The 59-year-old French aviation engineer pleaded not guilty and denied the accusation of indecently gesturing in public when he appeared before the Dubai Misdemeanour Court.
"Out in Europe and several Western countries, it's an Anglo-Saxon habit that someone flashes his middle finger unlike in our culture… where it is an act punishable by law. The two cultures differ, whereby when someone flashes his finger in the West he/she has to raise his elbow then flip up his finger.
"In the West it is a normal reaction. Here it's only flipping up the finger. My client, D.M., did not flash his finger. The claimants misunderstood his hand sign. He is very well educated and enjoys good behaviour. His social status does not permit him to act this way," said D.M.'s lawyer Hussain Al Jazeri before Presiding Judge Rifaat Tolba Othman.
Astonished
According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said D.M. flashed his middle finger in public at two Emirati policemen while driving his car towards the Business Bay Bridge.
The two policeman alleged that the suspect flashed his finger at them because they honked the horn when D.M. almost rammed into their car.
"We were driving a civilian police pick-up on Al Khail Road. Suddenly the suspect's car jumped into our lane in a reckless way… I overtook him from the left meanwhile my colleague showed him his police ID then asked him to pull over. When he flashed his middle finger, we reported the matter to the Operation Room," said one of the policemen.
Al Jazeri contended his client was surprised to see roadblocks and work developments ahead of him on the road.
"When the pick-up driver signalled for him to pull over, he was astonished. The pick-up did not have any sign that it was a police car. Then the passenger showed him something like a walkie-talkie. My client could not look at the other car because he was driving on a highway. Had he looked left or right, he might have caused an accident.
"He moved his hand but he didn't flash his finger… his social and academic background does not allow him to stoop to such offensive behaviour," said Al Jazeri.
Impossible
His other lawyer Obaid Ali Obaid asked Presiding Judge Othman to dismiss the case "because it would have been impossible to have happened in the way it was described by the policemen."
"How could they have seen him flashing his right-hand finger… supposedly he did, but he should have flashed his left-hand finger because they drove to his left," said Obaid.
