A very sad story is making the rounds in the UAE press:
A woman who lost her unborn baby in a Dubai road crash has been convicted of manslaughter and ordered to pay blood money, in the first such ruling in the UAE, local newspapers reported on Monday. The court found the 27-year-old Lebanese woman had failed to exercise due diligence when driving and caused her car to collide with another vehicle in October when she was nine months pregnant, the Arabic-language Al-Emarat Al-Youm said.
So, besides losing her child, she was to give birth in a few days, the unnamed Lebanese woman has been charged with murder.
In an unprecedented ruling, a court on Sunday convicted a mother of accidentally killing her fetus in a traffic accident, prompting a prosecutor to stress that the law preserves the right of fetuses to live.
The woman was fined AED2,000 (US$544) and ordered to pay AED20,000 (US$5,435) in blood money to the child’s “successor”.
A person has to pay 10 per cent of blood money for accidentally killing a foetus, according to Sharia. In the UAE, blood money amounts to Dh200,000.
What exactly does that mean? Who’s the successor? It doesn’t make any sense. Tragic story with a tragic ending.