Dubai: The Dubai Court of First Instance has sentenced three Emirati men to one month imprisonment and were ordered to jointly pay Dh12,000 in damages for beating up a couple, including a pregnant woman, nearly two years ago in an Ikea cafeteria at Dubai Festival City.
Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad convicted 52-year-old A.Z.; his son, M.Z. and brother, I.Z. for assaulting the Canadian couple and for threatening a Syrian man who witnessed the incident. The court also ordered the defendants to pay the couple Dh10,000 and Dh2,000 to the Syrian man. Medical reports confirmed that the female victim sustained five per cent permanent disability in her jaw. The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charges. The court also referred the claimant's civil suit to the Dubai Civil Court.
Irritated
The female victim, B.B., who was seven months pregnant at the time, told the court she and her husband, A.K., were having lunch when A.Z. approached them and asked them to move to another table as he already had the table reserved for his family. "We were lunching. The defendants came to us. A.Z. asked us to move to another table. When I told him that I was pregnant and cannot move to another table, my husband asked me to remain silent. My husband asked him to move to an empty table. Then they got irritated and pushed my husband. Then the three punched and kicked him. When I tried to stop them, A.Z. gave me a strong blow on my jaw then I fell on the floor," B.B. said.
The decision remains subject to appeal.
