Woman appeals jail term for high-heel assault on Dubai taxi driver

Moroccan says Ethiopian driver couldn't have known she called him an 'animal' as he doesn't speak Arabic and said she cannot be deported as her ex-husband is unfit to take care of her children.

DUBAI // One of four women jailed for assaulting and insulting a taxi driver for not allowing them to smoke in his cab has appealed, denying the driver’s allegations.

A video clip that was uploaded and shared on social media showed the Moroccan women drunkenly attacking and insulting A A at a petrol station in Al Barsha in October.

Records stated that 38-year-old A S insulted the Ethiopian driver, saying he was an “animal” before she took off her high heels and repeatedly hit him with them.

The woman, who was sentenced to six months in jail and then deportation, said she only pushed the driver.

She told Dubai Court of Appeal that she did not confess to assaulting or insulting him but only to drinking alcohol without a licence.

The woman, in her defence argument, told judges the driver did not speak or understand Arabic and that he said so in his testimony to prosecutors and police. She argued he could not possibly know that she called him an “animal” if he did not speak the language.

The mother, who has two children from a previous marriage to an Emirati man, pleaded for the court to acquit her and overturn the deportation order against her since she is the legal guardian to her children.

She said her children’s father is unable to raise them properly, citing an incident when her daughter was molested by a cousin while in the father’s care. She provided the court with the criminal case number to support the argument.

The woman also said that police and prosecutors were told by the women that the incident started when they were assaulted by a group of men who left in their vehicle before police arrived.

“The women and an eyewitness testified that a number of men arrived in a vehicle and assaulted the women but no further investigation was carried out by police or prosecution in this incident,” said A S’s lawyer, adding that a forensic report confirmed that the taxi driver did not sustain any injuries from high heels.

“Why would a cab driver who was just assaulted by his passengers drive them home after the alleged incident?” the lawyer asked.

The driver said in records that the women screamed at him when he told them they were not allowed to smoke inside the taxi. When they refused to stop smoking, he asked to be paid, after which the women told him to stop at the petrol station.

The cabbie did but they still refused to pay and attacked him, he said.

The women were charged with drinking alcohol without a licence and assault, along with insulting a public employee, a policeman who was called to the scene.

Dubai Court of Misdemeanours sentenced M A, 24, K A, 36, and M F, 24, for drinking alcohol without a licence and each were jailed for a month.

A S alone appealed her sentence.

A verdict is expected later this month.