Court rejects unruly hotel guest’s appeal

DUBAI: A woman who refused to pay hotel bills, ran around halfnaked, hurled items, assaulted oficers and screamed obscenities has seen her acquittal plea rejected by the Appeals Court.

The Arab housewife, 45, assaulted a Yemeni policeman tearing his uniform, slapped and pushed an Indian security guard and pushed a Filipina security guard to the ground for trying to seize her.

She screamed obscenities at two policemen who had been dispatched to apprehend her. This happened inside a waterfront luxury hotel on Oct.12 last year, the Dubai Criminal Court learnt.

She denied in May. “I neither assaulted the policeman nor insulted him.” She requested the court to review the CCTV footage. The court sentenced her to six months in the dock to be followed by deportation.

She appealed the court’s decision while insisting that she was innocent. She sought to be acquitted. However, the Dubai Appeals Court has rejected her acquittal request.

On the record, she showed up at the hotel’s second loor in revealing clothes around 8am. An Egyptian security manager rushed and found she had left. She went to its restaurant around 9.30am.

She ate and declined to pay. She argued that she only took nuts and two sushi pieces. She ordered for alcohol after which she dashed into a special oficial event at around 11.30am half-naked.

The manager talked to her, took her out of the hotel and thought she would leave. She showed up inside a restaurant on the 15th loor around 3.30pm, drank alcohol then went berserk, refusing to pay.

The manager tried to convince her to pay and leave. She argued she only took a glass and should not pay. She challenged him to call police. He called the Indian guard to monitor her while waiting for police.

She slapped the guard, pushed him away, ran to the hotel’s entrance, insulted his mother and threatened to get him deported.

The policeman arrived with a colleague and tried to calm her. She became chaotic and insulted both.

She screamed obscenities against police. The policeman told her to pay and leave.

He was calling for a support patrol when she grabbed him by the uniform, tearing its pocket. She pushed the Filipina to the ground for intervening then attacked employees.

They tried and failed to subdue her. She ran here and there inside the hotel and the restaurant and through guests. She hurled chairs and shoved tables striking guests with fear as cops and guards ran after her.

She posed stiff resistance. Several female employees helped pin her down. They took her out as she yelled.

She again insulted the policeman. Guards brought her an opaque cloth to cover her body. She appeared on CCTV.