Dubai woman jailed for causing flatmate's eyesight loss

Dubai - She will be deported after she serves jail term

A Tunisian woman, accused of physically assaulting her flatmate and causing her partial eyesight loss, has been sentenced to six months in jail. She will be deported after she serves her jail term.
The Court of First Instance found the 34-year-old PRO guilty of assaulting the Moroccan woman who shared the same accommodation and causing her a permanent injury.
A complaint was filed on September 21 last year at Al Muraqqabat police station.
The complainant, a 36-year-old jobless from Morocco, said the incident took place around 12:20am on September 15, 2016.
"We were in our accommodation with other girls when a verbal brawl broke out between me and the accused. She suddenly began to punch and slap me all over my body. My right eye got badly hurt."
The complainant told the prosecutor she was rushed by ambulance to hospital. After getting the necessary treatment, she went to the police station and lodged a complaint.
One of the two other flatmates, also a Tunisian woman, said she and another woman had to step in to break a fight going on in their place around midnight.
'The accused and the complainant were fighting and pulling each other's hair and punching each other. Suddenly, the complainant turned around and screamed that her eye had got hurt. Blood was coming out of her eye. We called the police right away.'
Another 31-year-old Tunisian flatmate said the fight erupted after the accused told the other woman to remove her stuff from her room to which the latter responded by saying that she would put her belongings wherever she wanted. 
According to the forensic report, the complainant was left with a partial eyesight loss of 20 per cent after the assault.
The court ruling remains subject to appeal.
- mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai