DUBAI // A police major who broke a man's leg while "defending a woman's honour" was today sentenced to a suspended six-month jail term.
The 33-year-old Emirati JA was attending an event hosted by an estate agency in Jumeirah in November 2010 when he saw two Moroccans - GA, a female 31-year-old, and MA, a male 38-year-old, involved in a tussle.
He told the Dubai Criminal Court that he saw the man "insulting and assaulting" a woman.
"I don't know her your honour, what I did was just to defend a woman in need," he said.
The woman said that the man was pulling her arm as she talked to a group of people. "He was drunk, the smell of alcohol was strong," she said, adding that he left after her friends intervened, but returned later and began insulting her.
She said that the police major intervened when the man tried to hit her. She said the police major pushed the man after he pulled his shirt and the man fell to the floor.
"When police arrived he looked at me making a sign on his neck meaning that he would kill me," she said.
Prosecutors said the major's assault broke the man's leg, leaving him with what they described as a permanent 15 per cent disability in the limb. MA was also charged with assault, for pulling the major's shirt, and was sentenced to one month in prison.
The prison sentences for each man were suspended for a three-year period. If either man repeats the offence within that time frame they will have to serve their prison terms.
Both men pleaded not guilty at the Dubai Criminal Court.
salamir@thenational.ae
