Dubai court fines couple Dh16,000 for mutual assault after domestic dispute

A Dubai court has fined a man and his wife Dh8,000 each after finding them both guilty of assaulting one another during a violent altercation that began as a domestic dispute.

The ruling, issued by the Misdemeanours and Violations Court, closes a case that drew attention for its unusual sequence of accusations and counterclaims, according to Al Khaleej Arabic daily.

According to court documents, the incident occurred in March when a housemaid reported to police that her employer, an Arab woman, had been assaulted by her husband inside their home in the Al Barsha area. The maid told investigators that the husband had struck his wife with a palm branch during an argument and seized her phone to prevent her from calling for help.

The report stated that the husband instructed the maid to take their child into another room as the argument escalated. The wife then left the house and, in apparent retaliation, shattered the windshield of her husband’s luxury car and caused extensive damage to its bodywork.

A police officer testified that the husband denied the assault, claiming he acted in self-defence and that his wife’s injuries resulted from her own aggression. He alleged that the argument stemmed from his delay in paying the instalments for a car he had rented for her, and that she deliberately damaged his vehicle, causing losses estimated at Dh45,000.

During questioning, the wife maintained that her husband had attacked her during yet another of their repeated marital disputes and that he had taken her phone to stop her from reporting the assault. She added that she had previously filed a complaint against him for similar behaviour and had refused reconciliation.

A forensic report from Dubai Police confirmed that the wife had sustained abrasions and bruises on her hands and other parts of her body. The report also found injuries on the husband consistent with a mutual assault.

The court convicted both spouses and imposed a fine of Dh8,000 each, citing the evidence that both parties had engaged in physical violence.