Published in: The National
On June 29 last year, the actress, 38, and her sister, 41, got into a physical fight with an Arab American family — a man, his wife and daughter — at Atlantis The Palm after she accused the daughter, 12, of taking photos of her.
According to court records, the celebrity and her sister also screamed at the family using “very strong language”.
Police were called and all involved were taken to Al Barsha police station.
At Dubai Court of Misdemeanours this month, the celebrity and her sister denied physically assaulting and insulting the man and his wife.
The man denied a counter charge of physically assaulting the actress. His wife, who did not attend court that day to enter a plea, is also charged with physical assault.
During court proceedings, the family’s lawyer, Emirati Awatif Mohammed from Awatif Mohammad Shoqi Advocates & Legal Consultancy, said medical reports proved that the family, including the daughter, sustained injuries as a result of the attack.
She called for Zeina and her sister to be additionally charged with assaulting the daughter but said there was no evidence to show that the family had attacked Zeina or her sister in response.
“Today’s verdict ordered prosecutors to look into an extra charge against the actress for physically assaulting my client’s daughter,” said Ms Mohammed.
She said prosecutors were also ordered to investigate whether the wife and daughter had taken pictures or recorded videos of the actress during the incident.
A second hearing will be scheduled once prosecutors carry out their investigations as per the court order.
Copyright © of this article is retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. We explicitly grant you permission to download a copy, without any alteration, of this article for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or any charge. This article can be utilized on your website or for marketing, however, we grant you permission to host this article on your website and no other rights. This content should not be altered in any way or sold commercially in any format without prior permission of the copyright holder. During reference of this article, full biographic details entailing the name of the author, his designation, the institute and the publishing date of the article shall be provided.
