Filipino jailed in Dubai: I want to go home

"We are poor people and I came here one year ago to work and help raise my three kids," he said.

"I have no clue what to do. I loved my wife more than my life. She was an adorable woman. I want to go home to my children and my family. I need help," he said

Dubai: A Filipino whose wife died in an accident involving a car he was driving has been ordered to pay Dh100,000 as 'blood money' to his wife's family and his children.

Joseph Aboutan also has to pay Dh20,000 for damaging a lamppost he hit with his car.

The Traffic Court of First Instance found Aboutan guilty of causing the death of his wife.

He is presently in custody at Al Aweer central jail in Dubai.

Aboutan recalls the day when his wife, who was on a visit here, was sitting next to him when his car hit a lamppost and overturned. He was arrested and taken to jail and his wife Imelda, 34, was admitted to hospital with serious injuries.

Aboutan never saw his wife after the accident as he was in jail and she was in the intensive care unit at Rashid Hospital. She died in hospital 25 days after the accident.

     

"Since the day of the incident two months ago I have been suffering day and night," he told Gulf News from his cell. "I do not have the money to pay the blood money or the fine," the 35-year-old Filipino said.

"We are poor people and I came here one year ago to work and help raise my three kids," he said.

"I have no clue what to do. I loved my wife more than my life. She was an adorable woman. I want to go home to my children and my family. I need help," he said

Aboutan, who has been working for a private company in Dubai, is the father of three young children, two boys aged 13 and 12 and one 10-year-old girl, who are now staying with his mother-in-law in the Philippines.

He said the incident happened on a Friday morning at 7am near Century Mall. "I got out of the car to help my wife. The last words she said to me was that she could not move her body," he said. "I never saw my wife after that."

He said he called the hospital from jail. Nurses at the intensive care unit held the phone to his wife's ear so she could listen to him, but she was not able to talk.

Aboutan was detained at Al Muraqqabat police station for 25 days, while his wife was in intensive care. He said all his pleas to see her were ignored. Two days after the death of his wife, Aboutan was granted bail by the traffic public prosecutor. He was arrested again early this week and was instructed to pay a fine for damaging government property as well as blood money.

"It is impossible for me to pay such an amount. I am desperate and I miss my children a lot. I called my children to tell them I am sorry for the loss of their mother," he said.

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