DUBAI // A drunk man who threw his wife from a second-floor balcony was sentenced to three years in prison today.
Prosecutors said the Tajik businessman JA, a 37-year-old, beat his wife while she was holding their baby before urinating on her and throwing her from a balcony. He denied an attempted murder charge when he appeared in court last September, and claimed she jumped off the balcony when confronted about being a prostitute.
His wife, FZ, 18, told the Dubai Criminal Court that her husband asked her to bring their daughter to meet him at a hotel apartment in Al Rafaa on April 8.
According to FZ, he arrived ten minutes after she did, and an argument ensued when she asked him what he had been doing. "He started screaming at me, then hit me several times on my head while I was holding our baby," said the wife.
When she begged him to stop, he snatched her mobile phone and smashed it on the floor. He then called another woman and told her he had assaulted his wife.
"She told him that I deserved it and that I had relations with other men and that she could find another woman for him to marry," said the wife.
"He then urinated on me and our baby, then left."
An Indian security guard said he heard the sound of the woman's body hitting the ground outside the hotel and went to help.
"She whispered into my ear that her baby was in the apartment," said the security guard.
The businessman arrived soon after and the security guard returned to the hotel to report what had happened. When he returned, the husband was gone.
He told the court that he ran away because he was afraid police would arrest him for a number of bounced cheques he had written.
The husband was arrested nearby shortly after fleeing the scene.
The court ordered JA to pay a temporary compensation of Dh21,000 to the wife, and fined him Dh2,000. He will be deported after completing his sentence.