DUBAI // What was meant to be a romantic night in a hotel ended a couple's 10-year marriage, a Dubai court has heard. She claimed he beat her up - and he claimed she received a Whatsapp message from another man on her phone.
The Emirati couple, who have two children together, had planned a night away together on March 8 in the Grand Hyatt.
Husband SA told police he looked at his wife's phone when it chimed to indicate the receipt of a WhatApp message. There, he found messages from a man he did not know named Khalid and another whom she had named "The Captain".
"I told her to go to her family's house and never return to mine," SA said. "I said I would send her the divorce paper there."
His wife, however, gave police a very different ending to the story.
"When we arrived at the hotel room, he grabbed me by my hair, beat me up with his hands and threw my mobile at my head before he banged my head on the wall," said 40-year-old wife MA, adding that her husband was a jealous man who always accused her of cheating.
She told investigators that he would often have his friends call her to flirt just so he could see if she would go along. "I would always hang up the phone and never give any man a chance," said the woman, who alleged she had been beaten up by her husband before.
Ten days after the hotel incident, SA was called by police and informed that his wife had lodged a complaint against him accusing him of assaulting her and insulting her honour.
She also gave the court a copy of a medical report that confirmed bruises and scratches were seen on the woman's left cheek.
"That is just an attempt from her to cover her bad behaviour," said the husband, who denied the charges.
SA was found guilty of insulting and assaulting his wife in the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours and fined Dh1,000.
