A MAN is on trial for allegedly burning and disfiguring his ex-wife with acid earlier this year.
The 42-year-old Bahraini driver was accused by the High Criminal Court of physically assaulting her on January 24. He denies the charges.
His victim, a 39-year-old Bahraini, sustained multiple burns caused by a corrosive chemical on her face, neck and hands, in addition to cuts and bruises.
The defendant denied the allegations to the Public Prosecution and stated, through a remotely held interrogation, that he ‘accidentally spilt the acid on her’ after she pushed him.
“I was at my ex-husband’s house because he insisted I come visit his mother after running into me at a furniture store,” said the victim in her statement to the prosecutors.
Suffocating
“We were sitting with his mother and talking and then he asked me to go to his kitchen to teach him how to use the oven.
“While I was showing him, he closed the door, blocked my path, and started accusing me of having a relationship with another man which was not true.
“He then tried to forcibly kiss me but when I rejected him and tried to leave, he grabbed my scarf and twisted it around my neck, suffocating me.
“He kept screaming that he would kill me and leave me disfigured.
“His brother then barged in and I felt a sudden sharp pain in my face and I thought he had hit me but that is when I saw my hands melting in front of my eyes.”
In her statement to the Public Prosecution, the victim added that in the midst of the commotion her former mother-in-law collapsed and suffered a seizure.
She also claimed that she was once again assaulted by the defendant with a broken glass cup, cutting her forehead, before she was able to flee the house in Jidhafs.
“I drove myself to the Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) where I received treatment and police officers took my statement,” she added.
“I went to the SMC Pharmacy where I ran into my ex-husband’s brother who informed me that my ex-husband had made claims that he wanted to rape me.
“He also said that he threatened to disfigure me and kill me if he failed so that no one would marry me again.”
Her medical report revealed that she was admitted to the hospital where she spent 27 days receiving treatment and she was left with ‘15 per cent permanent disfigurement’, the court heard.
The couple were married in 2003 but divorced following domestic violence incidents. However, they tried again, remarried but divorced once more in 2011 when he was jailed for 13 years on drug charges.
“I didn’t mean to cause her those burns and the truth is that she pushed me when I grabbed her scarf and I accidentally spilt the acid on her,” said the 42-year-old defendant to the Public Prosecution in his statement.
Burns
“I fell onto the kitchen floor where the glass full of acid was kept when I tried to stand up again but she came at me.
“I think the glass was stuck to my hand and it spilled on her by accident.
“I never meant to hurt her and her claims are baseless. We have a good relationship.
“If I wanted to burn her on purpose the acid wouldn’t have accidentally spilled on me and my brother.”
The case will be reviewed in court later this month.
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