A man accused of assaulting and insulting his wife told judges that the case is malicious and was filed by her and her father to force him into divorcing his new bride, a Dubai court heard on Thursday.
Prosecutors told Dubai Court of Misdemeanors that on January 17 the 39-year-old Jordanian beat up his wife and called her inappropriate names.
The wife, 19, said that the night before she and her husband went to bed at their marital home in Al Mamzar but he started complaining about the loud sound of her breathing.
“I am pregnant and suffering difficulty breathing, so he keeps complaining about that and he often insults me using very bad words - he calls me a dog and a poo,” said the Jordanian wife.
The next morning she said she woke up to noises he was making deliberately to wake her. “As I woke up, he took my mobile phone and was about to leave,” she said. “I stopped him and asked him to leave it because I was alone and an emergency may happen and I don't have a landline to use.”
She said her husband then choked her, slapped her and kicked her.
“He didn't even care that I was 20 weeks pregnant, he hit me all over my body and banged my head to the wall before he left,” she said. She then got dressed and went to the police station to report him.
The woman told police that she had been married to the defendant for seven months and that he had been ill-treating her ever since.
The accused denied charges of assault and issuing insults in court.
“It’s not true. My wife and her father are doing this to make me divorce my new wife,” he said. “On the day she claims I assaulted her, I returned home and didn't find her, then discovered that she stole Dh50,000 in cash from our house, Dh100,000 worth of gold and electronics worth more than Dh100,000 as well as my cheque book.
“When I asked for them back, she and her father blackmailed me into divorcing my second wife.”
When he refused, he said they lodged a report against him at Al Qusais police station accusing him of beating up his wife and insulting her.
“It was her and her father who insulted me and my family. I don't have any problems with my wife but I have work-related problems with her father and he keeps provoking her against me,” he said.
A verdict is expected later this month.
