DUBAI: The Abu Dhabi Appeals Court yesterday reduced a jail term against a couple who physically abused their nine-year-old daughter.
The court reduced the jail term to seven years, even though the Public Prosecution had asked for a harsher punishment. It however, upheld a lower court’s decision to fine the parents AED160,000.
In a landmark ruling a couple of months ago, the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court sentenced the Emirati couple to 10 years in prison and ordered them to pay AED16,000 — this was the first time that the maximum penalty for child abuse was issued by a UAE court.
The case, which shocked the UAE society, only came to light after doctors at Al-Mafraq Hospital raised the alarm. The child had been admitted with head injuries, which caused her to suffer 80 percent disability. Even though the father claimed she had fallen from a bike, doctors did not believe him as they also found other signs of beating, including old burn marks on her thighs.
The child’s stepmother admitted in court to burning her thighs with a heated knife and to beating her. The father also admitted to bashing the child’s head against a wall and beating her. He claimed he did so to discipline her. The child’s mother is divorced from the father and lives in another Arab country.
In a separate incident, the Dubai Misdemeanors Court yesterday sentenced a British woman and her boyfriend to two months in jail for adultery. The woman’s husband, also a British citizen, had reported the affair to the police. The woman told police that she was undergoing a divorce. Her boyfriend had been visiting the country on a short holiday when the police arrested them while leaving a hotel room.
