Actress loses bid to implicate girl in brawl

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

DUBAI: An actress accused of assaulting and insulting an American family on Wednesday failed to convince prosecutors that the couple’s daughter breached her privacy.

The Egyptian actress, 41, and her sister, 38, were inside a Dubai hotel on June 29 last year when they reportedly attacked an American tourist and his wife upon suspecting that their daughter, 12, was illicitly filming them.

The family’s lawyer – Ms Awatif Mohammed from Al Rowaad Advocates – asked the Dubai Misdemeanours Court’s jury to additionally charge the celebrity with assaulting the daughter. She scratched and bit her.

“The girl suffered a psychological condition and was referred to a psychiatrist,” said Ms Awatif and revealed the girl was traumatised due to the assault. She was referred to therapy sessions when she returned to the US.

Ms Awatif contended that a medical report attached to the case files confirmed the girl sustained assault injuries including scratches on her left arm and a swelling of the right temple. And these were inflicted by the actress.

In a counterargument, the actress’s lawyer Mahmoud Azab requested the Dubai Misdemeanours Court to charge the girl with breaching the privacy of his client. The court referred the case back to the Public Prosecution. Prosecutors ruled out the alleged breach of privacy charge after a technical report confirmed that neither the girl’s mobile phone nor her mother’s contained any images or recordings of the celebrity as per her claims.

“The report also confirmed that no images of the actress were deleted from both phones,” explained Ms Awatif who maintained her request to have the actress charged with physically assaulting the girl.

Besides, she requested the court to cross-examine a witness. “The witness, a customer at the restaurant, saw the actress assaulting the girl. He told prosecutors that when he tried to intervene, the actress’s sister assaulted him.”

In a separate development a few days ago, a man who mishandled a schoolgirl after claiming he was taking her to a police station for strolling with a boy at night has been immured.

The Arab defendant – a company agent, 31 – breached the modesty of the 16-year-old Syrian schoolgirl inside a grassy yard in the middle of a sandy area in Rashidiyah during late night hours on Aug.21, 2018 – an Eid Day.

He posed as a detective and demanded her to show her ID. She did not have it. He took her away.