Two British twin sisters have been found guilty of drunkenly assaulting a police woman in Dubai and sentenced to six months jail.
Alena and Sasha Parker, 37, fiercely protested their innocence when they were arrested outside a luxury hotel in the Gulf state in August last year.
But the identical pair, who had been working in the country as lawyers, were convicted of assault by the Dubai Criminal Court today.
Presiding judge Shaikha Hamad said the evidence against the sisters was ‘strong and solid’ and sufficient to find them guilty despite their not-guilty pleas.
He sentenced them to six months in prison and ordered their deportation from the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) upon release.
However, the two women, who were not in court, remain free on bail for now and have a month to decide whether to appeal their sentences.
The Dubai Criminal Court heard how the twins, who work for law firm Al Safar & Partners but previously appeared in soft porn films while living in London, punched and scratched the officer before throwing her to the ground, the UAE newspaper The National reported.
The incident began after paramedics tried to help Alena Parker who had hurt her hand after leaving a drinks reception at a hotel in the upmarket Al Barsha district on 4 August last year, the judge was told.
One of the Parker sisters was alleged to have slammed the ambulance door on the paramedic’s hand.
The 23-year-old Emeriti police officer told the court: ‘She [Alena Parker] was sitting inside the ambulance when we got there and the second one [Sasha Parker] was standing next to the ambulance and screaming.’
