ROAD RAGE overwhelmed a young man with anger issues who sucker-punched a motorist, damaging his nose permanently, and has appealed against a three-year prison sentence he received for the brutal assault.
His defence lawyers have pleaded with judges at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court to reduce the sentence, stating the fiery thug had medical issues.
The court heard that the incident happened in April, when the appellant’s mother was dropping him off at a gym near Suq Waqif, and had stopped in the middle of a busy road to let her son out.
In the car behind, an annoyed driver braked and honked his horn at the pair out of irritation that they had suddenly stopped the movement of traffic.
Hearing the sound, the sporty 24-year-old opened the motorist’s door and threw a vicious punch at him, which knocked his nose out of place.
“Blood began streaming from the victim’s nose and he got out of his car. The defendant continued to beat him and kicked his leg,” read the verdict from the initial trial.
“People gathered and managed to get the defendant off the victim. He was handed over to the police but managed to escape from an officer’s grip, and got on top of the victim’s car. He kicked in the windshield, shattering it, and also broke the rear-view mirror.”
According to a medical report, the punch left the Bahraini victim with a five per cent disability. The defendant had broken his nose, which caused swelling, a deviation of his nasal septum and partial blockage of his respiratory tract.
An X-ray and CT scans reportedly showed complex fractures that made it impossible to restore the nose to its pre-attack condition.
In the original trial, the appellant’s lawyers claimed that the victim had provoked the suspect by honking at him, and that should count as a mitigating factor in the case, but judges dismissed this argument.
He admitted to the charges, both before the Public Prosecution and the court, recounting that he had asked his mother to drop him off at a gym and she had turned on the ‘hazard lights’ to alert those behind her of a brief stop in traffic.
He was convicted of unintentionally causing a permanent injury to the man’s nose, and intentionally damaging the body of his vehicle.
On top of the three-year sentence, the court ordered the appellant to pay the car’s owner BD50 to replace the windshield he smashed.
Before appeal judges, his attorneys presented medical documentation that he was diagnosed with epilepsy, as part of the defence.
A verdict on the appeal case is set to be issued on October 27.
zainab@gdnmedia
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