Dubai court upholds acquittal of man accused of slashing woman, stealing bag

DUBAI // Prosecutors tried to win a conviction against a man who was acquitted of slashing a woman’s head several times with a sharp object before stealing her bag, but they lost.

Dubai Court of Appeal rejected prosecutors appeal and upheld the acquittal of the 42-year-old Tunisian.

The man was arrested and charged with theft and assault in August last year. When he appeared in both courts, he insisted he was innocent.

The Uzbek victim, 41, said she was waiting for the lift in her building in Al Muraqqabat when she was allegedly attacked from behind on October 20, 2015.

“He assaulted me with something sharp on the right side of my head several times before he snatched my bag and ran away,” said the woman.

Her bag contained a smartphone worth Dh4,500, bank cards and cash.

Police were called and were able to pull images of the attacker from CCTV camera footage.

“We managed to get a clear image of the attacker from CCTV and made a print out. It was distributed to police across the emirate,” said a 27-year-old Emirati policeman.

The reasons of his acquittal were not made available.