A woman died after slipping from a car she was holding on to and smashing her head on to the pavement after it took off at speed outside a hotel near Bab Al Bahrain.
An Egyptian expatriate, a group of women thought was behind the wheel of a taxi, had arrived to pick up his girlfriend, the High Criminal Court heard, and ended up in an argument with them.
The 33-year-old Egyptian yesterday denied charges of committing assault which unintentionally led to the Moroccan victim’s death.
According to court documents, three Moroccan women were involved in the altercation and one of them appeared to be worse for wear after a drinking session.
Matters got soon out of hand when the fight got physical, and the defendant attempted to escape the fracas, reportedly so that police officers called to the scene did not find out about his expired residency permit.
When the defendant abruptly accelerated the vehicle, the woman, who was holding on to the driver-side door’s handle, fell on the asphalt and sustained severe injuries.
Four days after the incident, victim Nawal El Khayati died of brain injuries and head trauma, having suffered a blockage in the artery that supplied blood to the brain. She also sustained facial fractures.
Several of the women involved in the altercation gave conflicting testimonies, some stating that the victim was defending a drunk friend who was in an intense verbal argument with the Egyptian.
However, the driver claimed that Ms El Khayati has started hitting him and punching him in the face as she held on to his car and that he was ‘in terror’ that authorities may find that he is undocumented.
“The man tried to escape as quickly as he possibly could due to how anxious and agitated he was, which led him to abruptly turn the car,” his defence memo read. “Moreover, the victim was in the defendant’s blind spot when she was holding on to the door, and he was turning right so he didn’t see her.
“He was so afraid that policemen would come and take him away with the girls, find that his residency permit had expired, and deport him.
“The defendant was pushed into the criminal case despite not instigating any of the arguments, which were started by the girls’ actions, not his.”
The defence team stated that the man had come to the hotel to pick up one of the girls for dinner, when a drunken woman entered the back seat, thinking that his car was ‘a taxi’.
They claimed that the fight began when he asked her to leave his vehicle, when more girls joined the argument to support their intoxicated friend.
The Public Prosecution asked judges to issue a maximum penalty against the defendant, claiming that the incident was not a mere accident but a product of the Egyptian man’s ‘malice’.
A barista who watched the argument outside the hotel told prosecutors that he witnessed a number of Moroccan women engaged in a fight.
He stated that he, along with another witness who works as a taxi driver, rushed to the scene, managed to separate the warring parties and removed the keys from the car’s ignition to stop the driver from leaving.
“The defendant managed to take the key back and enter the car. At the time, the victim was holding on to the window near the driver’s seat, but he didn’t care and drove a few metres ahead with immense speed,” the 25-year-old Bahraini said. “This led her to slip and fall on the road and she was injured.”
Judges have said they will issue a verdict on the manslaughter case on February 25.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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