Heavy fine for Arab actress for assaulting US family, girl in Dubai

The actress had earlier denied the assault in a Dubai court.

An Egyptian actress, involved in a physical assault case against a family of American tourists in Dubai, has been fined Dh10,000 by a court in the emirate. 
In a previous hearing, 38-year-old actress Zena faced an additional charge of assaulting the family's 12-year-old daughter.
The Dubai Court of Misdemeanours has also fined the tourist Dh10,000.
The actress had been referred to court for an incident that took place on June 29 last year. She allegedly got into an altercation with the Arab-American family over claims that the daughter took photos of her without her consent.
A case was later registered at Al Barsha police station. Both the actress and her 41-year-old sister denied the physical assault and verbal abuse charges in court.
A guest, who was at the restaurant of the five-star resort where the incident took place, recalled that the actress started screaming at the girl as she thought the latter was taking photos of her. When the girl's parents saw the fight, they rushed to their daughter, and the actress' sister also stepped in, the witness said.
A charge of invasion of privacy was earlier dismissed as no photos or videos of the actress could be found in the mobile phones of the woman and her daughter.
No such photos or footage were also deleted from the phones, according to experts' technical report.
Both parties filed cases against each other and were not willing to resolve the dispute amicably.
The tourist, who was also facing a physical assault charge, then pleaded not guilty. His wife was equally accused.
- mary@khaleejtimes.com