Engineer jailed for causing permanent disability in Palm Jumeirah assault

A medical report showed that the victim now suffers from numbness in the left side of his face and difficulty breathing

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A civil engineer who caused a man permanent disability after punching him in the face during a fight at a restaurant will spend six months in prison.

On March 10, the British defendant, 28, was having dinner with a woman on Palm Jumeirah when a confrontation broke out between her and a Lebanese man who was at the restaurant with his family.

“I was with my wife, children and our house maid dining at the restaurant when our maid was denied the use of the toilet by the cleaner,” the 37-year-old Lebanese sales manager said.

“I went to talk to the cleaner, but then a British woman came out and started questioning why I was addressing the cleaner.

“When she saw my wife, she asked her how she could allow me to talk to strange women,” he told Dubai Criminal Court.

He said he and his wife dropped the matter, but a few minutes later as he re-entered the restaurant from a cigarette break, he passed the British woman's table where she was sitting with the defendant.
"She pointed at me as I passed by and all of a sudden the man in her company got up and punched me. I don't remember anything else because I passed out," he said.
It was not clear who contacted police.
Prosecutors said a medical report showed that the victim suffered fractures in the bones around his eye and nose that required metal plates. The man now suffers from numbness in the left side of his face and difficulty breathing, which doctors estimated as a 5 per cent permanent disability.
In December 2016, the defendant denied in court a charge of physical assault that caused a permanent disability.
On Tuesday he was sentenced to six months in jail to be followed by deportation and ordered to pay Dh21,000 in temporary compensation to the victim.