Dubai: A public relations manager will be jailed three years after a court convicted him yesterday of injuring a man's eye with a billiard ball, causing him permanent disability.
The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced in absentia the Jordanian defendant, 37, to three years in jail.
Prosecutors accused the defendant, A.M., of causing five per cent permanent disability to the eye of the 35-year-old Emirati man after he attacked him in the bar of a five-star hotel.
Pronouncing yesterday's judgment, Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir also referred the Emirati's, K.T., temporary compensation claim of Dh21,000 to the Dubai Civil Court.
The victim testified in his prosecution statement: "We were in a five-star hotel waiting for the suspect to finish playing billiards. I walked up to him and asked him to hurry up and finish his game because I wanted to play billiards. Then I walked back to another game until he finished… he surprisingly came from the back and hit me hard with a billiard ball on my face. I fell unconscious and woke up in hospital."
Prosecution records show the victim was rushed to Rashid Hospital.
"After I fell unconscious, I never realised how he attacked me thereafter and only regained consciousness on my hospital bed… I had several injuries," claimed K.T. Forensic doctors confirmed that the claimant sustained permanent disability to his right eye.
According to the Criminal Procedures Law, the accused can contest yesterday's judgment and request a retrial because it was issued in absentia. However, he has to produce a valid explanation for his absence.
