Dubai — A holidaymaker was handed a six-month suspended sentence for getting drunk and beating up a policeman after he was removed from a plane.
Aviation authorities at the Dubai International Airport deplaned the 22-year-old Saudi holidaymaker because he was too intoxicated in December.
When police were called in and asked to take the 22-year-old away, the accused turned violent and assaulted the policeman who was accompanying him.
The Saudi national beat the policeman when he tried to put him in the airport’s detention cell.
On Monday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Saudi defendant of beating the policeman and consuming alcohol.
Citing grounds of leniency, presiding judge Urfan Omar suspended the defendant’s six-month imprisonment for three years, during which the crime should not be repeated.
However, presiding judge Omar fined the Saudi Dh2,000 for drinking liquor and ordered that he be deported.
The Saudi defendant pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court.
The accused contended in court: “I was very drunk and I was not aware of my actions. I had completely blacked out … did not realise anything around me. When I regained my consciousness inside the detention, I was told that I had assaulted a policeman. I was drunk.”
The assaulted policeman told prosecutors that the incident happened after the defendant was removed from the plane.
“While I was trying to convince the accused to walk into the confinement cell, he took me by surprise and punched me. Then when we tried to handcuff the defendant, he resisted ferociously,” the policeman testified to prosecutors.
Medical reports said the policeman was hurt in the cheek.
Monday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
