(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) An unemployed Emirati man who assaulted a Kenyan woman, who died from the wounds inflicted after she tried to stop the man molesting her friend, has had his jail sentence of four years upheld.
The Court of Appeal on Sunday upheld the sentence handed down by the Court of First Instance in July, when it gave the defendant, 23, three years for the assault charge and one year for a molestation charge.
According to the case, the defendant punched the victim in the face which caused her to collapse and her head hitting the ground in the parking lot of a hotel on Shaikh Zayed Road. He kept kicking her face while she was lying down injured.
The defendant's confrontation with the victim happened after he allegedly molested her friend. It was after 3am one night in February.
His defence lawyer argued in court earlier that his client only reacted and responded to the victim who initiated the attack on him.
The lawyer said that the victim began the fight by hitting his client on his head. He added that the defendant could provide the court with a medical report stating that he was chronically ill. The lawyer added that the woman, who was allegedly molested by the defendant, gave contradictory statements.
The victim's Kenyan girlfriend, 28, told the prosecutor that she, the victim and another woman had just walked out of a party at a night club and were walking towards the parking lot. The defendant came to them and fondled and groped the witness.
She was provoked by his act and asked him about the reason for it but he pushed her defiantly. She then walked towards her car and was talking on her mobile phone. At that moment, she looked back and saw her friend, the victim, lying down while the defendant was kicking her head without mercy.
She screamed for the help of passers-by and some of them kept the accused away from her.
He was in a state of rage as he was contained by the passers-by. By the time the police arrived, the accused had fled the scene with his friends. She wrote down his car's registration number.
