Married lover 'ran over' woman in car

A man is being tried in absentia on charges he ran over his ex-lover with his car.

DUBAI // A woman was left crippled after her former married lover ran her over before fleeing the country, a court heard yesterday.

The victim, LC, 35, a Norwegian businesswoman, was so emotionally and physically scarred from the attack that she cannot work or maintain a social life, prosecutors say.

The chief prosecutor, Khalid Al Alawi, told the court: "The defendant's plan to kill her was unravelled purely due to God's grace allowing her to live until she was taken to hospital."

AE, an Iranian-born 46-year-old from France, is no longer in the UAE and is being tried in absentia for attempted murder at the Criminal Court of First Instance.

LC told prosecutors that she had been in a romantic relationship with AE, who is married, since March 2007.

"He always assured me that he was going to leave his wife, so our relationship developed and we were in love," she told prosecutors. "I discovered that he did not intend to leave his wife, so I gave him an ultimatum, either me or her."

LC cut off the relationship but he pursued her until she agreed to have dinner with him at Souq Al Bahar on September 15, 2009, prosecutors say.

"We discussed the future of the relationship and started arguing. He insisted to drive me back home, and we argued again in the car," she said. "When we arrived our argument heated up and I called him a pathetic loser, and at that point, decided to finally end it."

AE became so furious that he pulled LC out of the car, threw her to the ground, then got back in the driver's seat and reversed the vehicle over her before driving away, prosecutors say.

Dubai police received a call for an ambulance for a woman who was run over in Al Rifaa district early on September 16.

A medical report, completed in August this year, states that LC cannot perform any daily duties at home or work and the continuous pain of her injuries means she is under the influence of painkillers for most of the day.

The court will reconvene on January 23.