Claim by lawyer about website angers mother

A furious mother lashed out at one of two defence attorneys, while another wept silently at the Dubai Courts on Wednesday.

Both were at the jampacked Chamber 4 of the Dubai Court of First Instance where Presiding Judge Fahmy Munir convicted, among others, a 20-year-old German student to six months imprisonment and deportation.

Munir also heard the consensual sex defence angle for two of three Emiratis on trial for the kidnap and sodomy of a 15-year-old French schoolboy, currently enrolled at a boarding school in Switzerland as a result of the alleged crime that took place in the desert of Al Barsha on July 14, 2007.

It took several minutes for the mother of 20-year-old YMF to realise that her son was found guilty of possessing 0.0204 grammes of hashish when he returned with two of his three vacationing friends from Egypt on Aug. 23, 2007.

YMF's mother, who sat inside the courtroom along with four other women friends and relatives, was practically led out of the room by one of the women later.

"Oh my God," she whispered as she cupped her face with her bare hands, tears welling from her eyes.

Earlier in the trial of YMF who was also accused of carrying hashish, a police officer stood witness against him, as a friend and fellow vacationer stood by him, stating that the trousers inside YMF's luggage where the prohibited stuff was discovered, was not his but of their other travelling buddy, AA.

Website claim

Back to the French boy case, the forceful voice of the lead defence counsel was drowned when the mother of plaintiff AP sprung up from her seat, headed towards the attorney, vigorously gesticulated at him while hurling invectives and yelled: "Who are you? Who are you?"

Emiratis 36-year-old unemployed AKMZ and 18-year-old student IAMF are on trial. The case of the third co-accused 17-year-old IMK is before the Dubai Juvenile Courts.

"You (invectives)... And you are trying to save my son with all these lies?" she screamed at the lawyer who avoided her by walking several steps away.

"Shame on you, sir! Shame on you!," the veteran political journalist-mother, went on to say, as she was led out of the room by four security personnel upon the order of the presiding judge.

She was reacting to the statement of the counsel who claimed that in a French language website from Switzerland, AP, upon the advice of their lawyer and for which his mother knew stated: "I will not ever go back to Dubai whatsoever because if I do, I will be charged of homosexuality."

In his presentation, the lawyer also repeated the word "DNA" several times.

Prior to the mother's leaving the courtroom, The Gulf Today saw her taking a snapshot of the defence lawyer with her mobile phone. She was later seen handing a tape recorder to one of the security personnel who was tipped by another journalist.

It was learnt that the gadget was owned by a journalist Frenchman who has been covering the case since Nov. 7, 2007.

Meanwhile, the defence pointed out that consensual sex transpired between AP and IMK. The defence also asked for the whereabouts of the broken billiard pole and the knife which AP's friend FL claimed was used to frighten him when he refused to alight from the car where the alleged sodomy took place.