Abu Dhabi prosecution to appeal school bus death case

ABU DHABI // Prosecutors will appeal against the recent verdicts in the case over the death of Nizaha Aalaa.

The prosecution said yesterday it had demanded the most severe penalty for those convicted “as the child was in a supposedly safe place” when she died.

Nizaha, 3, died of heat exhaustion in October 7 last year after being locked on a school bus.

Last week, the Court of Appeal overturned a ruling that ordered the closure of her school, Al Worood Academy Private School.

But the Abu Dhabi Education Council said after the decision that closure was final.

“Public prosecution is preparing to lodge an appeal in Cassation,” prosecutors said.

In February, the bus driver and supervisor were given three years in jail for negligence, while the bus company owner got six months and was fined Dh500,000 and a school administrator was given a suspended three-year sentence.

The appeals court cut the driver’s sentence to six months and the supervisor’s to a year. The owner was cleared on one charge and the administrator acquitted.