Etihad Airways asked to pay Tk 20m to two Bangladeshis for harassment

The High Court (HC) on Wednesday asked the Etihad Airways to pay Tk 10 million compensation each to a Bangladeshi woman and her daughter in a 2011 case filed over harassing them at Abu Dhabi airport, reports UNB.

The UAE flag carrier will have to pay the compensation to Tanzeen Bristy and her mother Nahid Sultana Juthi, a Supreme Court lawyer and also the wife of Jubo League chairman Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash.

Given the ongoing pandemic, Etihad was asked to pay the compensation in 20 equal monthly instalments after receiving the copy of the verdict.

This was an "arbitrary, unjust, and uncourteous" act of Etihad Airways which cannot be measured by fine only, the HC bench of justice Md Ashraful Kamal and justice Razik-Al-Jalil made the observation in the full 192-page text of the verdict.

On 28 June 2011, the mother and daughter were going to Canada on an Etihad flight. But they were harassed by the airline staff at Abu Dhabi airport and were forced back to Dhaka at their own cost.

On 5 July 2011, Bristy served a legal notice on Etihad, seeking compensation and action against the airline for their harassment.

On 14 July that year, the HC had asked the inquiry committee of the foreign ministry to submit the probe report in one month after collecting the video footage from Etihad.

On 8 October last year, the HC bench had announced its verdict following the writ petition filed by Bristy almost ten years ago.