Dubai: American pilot wins suspended punishment for confining friend: Lawyer argues defendant didn’t have criminal intention

Dubai: A pilot, who was accused of confining his female friend in his flat, has won a suspended punishment after his lawyer convinced the court that he didn’t have any criminal intention.

The 28-year-old American pilot had pleaded not guilty and asked for his six-month imprisonment to be overruled when he defended himself before the Dubai Appeal Court.

In February, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the pilot for six months after he was convicted of unlawfully confining his 23-year-old Bahraini friend by locking her inside his flat.

“My client did not have any criminal intention. His friend waived her complaint and she even appeared before the court to testify that it was a misunderstanding. No harm was inflicted on the woman and she willingly dropped her complaint. The pilot did not have intention of wrongdoing or breaking the law. On the contrary he is a law-abiding resident,” the American’s advocate Diana Hamade told the appellate court.

However, the Appeal Court’s presiding judge Mahmoud Fahmi Sultan suspended the six-month imprisonment earlier this week.

Last year the Court of First Instance sentenced the defendant in absentia to one year in jail followed by deportation.

The pilot turned himself in, according to the Criminal Procedures law, and requested a retrial. The primary court handed him six months in jail.

The advocate provided the presiding judge with a waiver that was obtained from the Bahraini.

Advocate Hamade argued before the Appeal Court: “The claimant reconciled with the defendant and dropped her complaint. We ask the court to cancel his imprisonment and acquit him. The claimant is my client’s friend and she came to court to drop her complaint in person.”

“The defendant and I are close friends… we reconciled. The confinement did not cause me any injury. When I communicated with the police, I explained that the defendant had had an accident and he wasn’t aware of what he did. I am here to drop my complaint,” stated the Bahraini friend.

Records said the American got angry with his friend when she spoke to him tensely so he locked her for one hour in his flat in Shurouq near Mirdif.

Court records said the defendant prevented his friend from leaving the flat on October 4.

Records said the friend had deposited her passport in the traffic department after the pilot was involved in a car accident. She claimed that he got angry and locked her inside the flat while she was searching for the police receipt that she needed to release her passport.

The appellate judgement remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.

Source:   http://gulfnews.com