ABU DHABI // A woman who told airport security her breasts would explode has been acquitted by the Appeals Court.
R, from Egypt, was originally sentenced to two months in jail by the Misdemeanour Court after they found her guilty of making a false report.
R was passing through the security scanner at Abu Dhabi International Airport and was referred for inspection by a female agent.
As the agent pressed the inspection device against her breasts, she jokingly told her: “Beware or they will explode.”
She argued the expression was a commonly used Egyptian metaphor. The female agent, however, reported her to police and she was arrested.
When police failed to find any explosives she was charged with making a false report.
Her lawyer had argued that her client was joking, saying: “They were two women alone in the room and the woman was using Egyptian sense of humour; we all know how Egyptians like to joke.”
The lawyer added her client apologised to the agent after making the comment and clarified that she was joking.
“Why would she say she had explosives if she did actually have them? And why would she claim she had [explosives] if she did not, when she knows she will be discovered and accused of a false report?”
hdajani@thenational.ae