Ajman court acquits son after CCTV shows father started attack

Ajman: An Ajman appellate court has upheld the acquittal of a 22-year-old Arab man accused of assaulting his 67-year-old father, ruling that surveillance footage showed he was acting to stop an ongoing attack rather than committing a criminal offence.

The Ajman Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the Public Prosecution's challenge and confirmed the original acquittal after finding that the son had intervened only to disarm his father during a violent family dispute. The court concluded that the evidence failed to establish the legal elements required for a criminal conviction and that the father's injuries were sustained during the struggle to remove the wooden stick from his person.

The case centred on charges of mutual assault causing injuries that temporarily prevented normal activities for less than 20 days under the UAE Crimes and Penalties Law.

According to court records, the incident took place at a family home in Ajman in August 2025. A dispute erupted after one of the children asked the father to withdraw an earlier criminal complaint against the son. The father refused, and the argument escalated into a physical confrontation.

Witnesses, including family members, told the court that the father picked up a wooden stick and began attacking his children. While the father claimed that his son had insulted and assaulted him, the testimony of several family members painted a different picture, identifying the father as the attacker.

A decisive turning point came when investigators reviewed CCTV footage from inside the residence. Police analysis showed the father entering a room carrying a wooden stick and repeatedly striking his son on the hand and arm. The footage then showed the son approaching, taking the stick from his father and breaking it into two pieces. No part of the recording showed the son launching an offensive attack.

The father later submitted a medical report documenting scratches, bruising, a hand injury and other minor injuries that required three days of treatment. However, the court found that these injuries were most likely sustained during the struggle to disarm him and prevent the attack from continuing.

The defence, led by lawyer and legal adviser Abdullah Bin Hatem, argued that the son had neither assaulted his father nor acted with criminal intent. Rather, he intervened to protect family members and stop the violence. The defence cited testimony from the mother, brother, sister and aunt, alongside 1 minute and 26 seconds of CCTV footage, which the court ultimately found to be compelling evidence.

The legal battle passed through several stages. A court of first instance initially acquitted the son while convicting the father in absentia and sentencing him to six months in prison and a Dh10,000 fine. Following an appeal by prosecutors, a higher court overturned the acquittal and sentenced the son to one month in prison and a Dh5,000 fine.

The son then challenged the conviction before the Federal Supreme Court, which quashed the appellate ruling after finding shortcomings in the way the facts, evidence and legal elements of the offence had been assessed. The case was sent back to a newly constituted appellate panel for reconsideration.

After reviewing the evidence afresh, including the surveillance footage, the new appellate panel concluded that the son's actions amounted to an effort to stop a threat rather than commit an assault. The court stressed that criminal convictions must be based on certainty and that any doubt must be interpreted in favour of the accused. It ruled that the alleged conduct either had not been proven or did not constitute a punishable offence, making acquittal mandatory.

The court ultimately rejected the Public Prosecution's appeal and upheld the son's full acquittal.