Food poisoning deaths: Top court upholds trio’s jail terms

The Court of Cassation, upholding the suspended jail terms handed out to the three defendants by the Court of Appeal earlier this year.

The final verdict comes after over two years. In May, the Appellate Court had sentenced two restaurant workers (a chef and a supervisor) and a woman doctor to jail terms of six months each on the charges of 'negligence and mistake', which led to the death of the siblings, Chelsea and Nathan D'Souza.

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Presiding Judge Mahmoud Fahmi Sultan, however, ruled that their jail terms would delayed for three years.

The court also ordered the defendants - an Iraqi woman physician and the restaurant workers from Nepal and the Philippines - to each pay Dh20,000 in fines and jointly pay Dh400,000 in blood money (Diya) to the children's parents, while clearing the restaurant of any wrongdoing. In February, the Court of Misdemeanours presided over by Judge Jamal Jbeili sentenced the defendants to fines of Dh10,000 each for causing the death of the brother and sister by 'negligence and mistake'.

Judge Jbeili also ordered the three defendants to jointly pay Dh200,000 in blood money to the victims' parents.

The Indian-French children, Nathan, 5, and Chelsea, 7, died due to food poisoning after eating a home-delivered meal from a restaurant in Al Qusais.

While Nathan died on June 13, 2009, his sister died the next day.

mary@khaleejtimes.com