As far as impressive women are concerned, Dr Eman Al Jaberi is right up there.
The lieutenant colonel – the first woman to receive this rank – started her career as a police investigator and was the first female investigator at Abu Dhabi Police.
She then became the first female instructor at the Police College before turning her hand to being a lawyer.
“I took the theoretical approach while teaching law and now the practical as a lawyer,” says Dr Al Jaberi, 54.
Her police experience and PhD study has given her useful insight for her new career role.
For her doctorate, she studied the judicial decision process in issuing acquittals and convictions.
“This benefited me a lot,” Dr Al Jaberi says. “I am able to understand how the judge thinks during the session and how to deal with him.”
Her indepth knowledge of police work and procedure is also a huge benefit to her, she says.
“The success of lawsuits for me is based 90 per cent on mistakes of police stations while carrying out legal procedures – inspections, arrests or confiscations –before issuing a public prosecution permit.”
Dr Al Jaberi has been working as an attorney since 2010 and while her previous career expertise has been extremely useful, she is delighted to say that she still has much to learn.
“Every day since five years I learn a new life lesson.
“For instance, while presenting your defence you need to know your limits, how to present without offending your opponent.”
Overcoming obstacles with the judges and prosecutors is always an issue. “Making requests to the court is always a barrier between the lawyer and the judge,” she says. “If we remove these barriers the job becomes more comfortable.”
Even for someone as capable as Dr Al Jaberi, her new career can require luck as well as extremely good juggling skills.
Dr Al Jaberi recalls one such day – her most challenging as a lawyer, she says.
She had been appointed a case by the justice ministry that requird her to be in attendance at the state security court. That same day, at the same time, she was due to be at another court for a drugs related case.
One court is in Khalidiya and the other is behind Carrefour on Airport Road. She went first to state security and “presented my defence then flew to the judicial department”.
“On the way there the client’s father kept calling me and I was about to get into 100 accidents.”
She finally reached the court at 11.30am just as the judge was calling the delayed case. Both of her defendants were acquitted.
The sense of achievement when winning a case is second to none says Dr Al Jaberi, who also managed to get an acquittal on appeal for a 17-year-old boy who was sentenced to death
after being caught with heroin in his shoes. Another time she took on the case of a watchman who had been accused by his wife of raping their 14-year-old daughter.
“I sensed this man was innocent and was the victim of an intrigue, so I asked the judge to allow me to defend him,” she says.
The man was cleared by the Criminal Court.
“When an acquittal is issued for any of my cases, I feel a sense of great victory and delight. It’s indescribable,” she says.
hdajani@thenational.ae
