Dubai: A supervisor has been jailed for six months for cursing two policemen and beating them with handcuffs when they were arresting him for not paying the taxi fare.
A Bangladeshi taxi driver called the police and reported that he had a brawl with a Jordanian supervisor who had refused to pay for his taxi ride in July 2018.
The driver notified police that the Jordanian also drank beer in his taxi and refused to pay his Dh38 tariff when he reached Al Jaddaf area.
The policemen who went to the location saw the 41-year-old Jordanian sitting in the passenger seat and refusing to leave the taxi.
When they tried to get him out of the taxi, the defendant cursed them and assaulted them.
On Tuesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Jordanian defendant of cursing the two policemen and assaulting them.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the defendant, who pleaded not guilty, will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
When he defended himself in court, the Jordanian said: “I did not assault them. I was inside the car. I was not aware of anything around me because I was drunk.”
The taxi driver told prosecutors that when the accused refused to pay the tariff, he called the police.
“He drank beer in the vehicle and he refused to stop when I asked him to. I called the police and they asked me to put him through. When I handed him my phone and told him to speak to the policeman, he threw it and wrecked the screen. While waiting for the police to arrive, he also damaged the front window. When the policemen tried to get him out of the car, he cursed them and assaulted them,” the driver testified.
One of the assaulted policemen said when they arrived, the defendant was smoking and sitting in the front seat.
“He refused to step out. When we tried to take him out, he cursed us. He also hit us with the handcuffs when we tried to restrain him,” he said.
The Dubai Misdemeanours Court fined the suspect Dh3,000 for drinking alcohol.
Tuesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
