Jail terms for men who attacked pregnant woman in Dubai Ikea cafeteria

DUBAI // A sentence was delivered today, two and a half years after three brothers made headlines for beating a pregnant woman who sat down at their table in an Ikea cafeteria.
Emirati businessman A A, 52, and his brothers M A, 33, and E A, 43, were sentenced today to a month in jail each and fined a total of Dh12,000 for their involvement in the brawl that erupted after a Canadian couple sat down at the end of a table for 12 at an Ikea cafeteria on June 13, 2009.
"A A approached us and told us that the table was booked as his three children were sitting on the other end," the husband told the court.
His wife, a marketing manager, protested that she was pregnant and did not want to move, but she was shushed by her husband who told the men to go and sit elsewhere while they finished their meal.
"I was punched in the back of the head and lost consciousness and woke to find three men kicking me and punching me on the floor and saw my wife bleeding from her legs profusely," he told prosecutors.
A Syrian man who witnessed the fight, Z R, said he saw A A hitting the pregnant woman while M A and E A were assaulting the husband on the floor.
He tried to intervene to stop one of the defendants from swinging a chair at the unconscious man, but was punched.
Security guards had to call Dubai Police to stop the fight after they failed to stop it themselves.The couple were taken to Rashid Hospital, where the wife was also given treatment to prevent a miscarriage. The child survived the attack, records show.
The brothers were sentenced by Judge Hamad Abdel Latif in the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance. All three will serve a month in prison and must pay a fine of Dh10,000. A A was ordered to pay an extra Dh2,000 fine for threatening the couple and the Syrian man who attempted to stop the fight.
amustafa@thenational.ae
Editor's note: The headline in this article has been changed since original publication from 'Justice for pregnant woman attacked in Dubai Ikea cafeteria'.