A Gulf airline company has offered Ali Al-Sheheri, a Saudi national, one million riyals to drop his complaint against the company at the Riyadh General Court. Two months ago, Al-Sheheri booked a seat on the company's plane to fly from Riyadh to Australia, but to his surprise, at the airport the airlines stopped him from traveling under the pretext that he was handicapped and suffering from paralysis, Al-Riyadh daily reported. Al-Sheheri reportedly said in his complaint that he was humiliated because of the embarrassingly personal questions he was made to answer by the land crew at the airport in front of other passengers. He also complained that he was asked to present a medical report besides filling out a medical form. He said the company based its action on the contractual laws governing the air ticket which state that if a passenger is suspected of being sick and unable to travel, his ticket will be cancelled. Al-Sheheri claims that the company's action caused him to lose a four-year government scholarship which covered house rent in Australia, the total value of which was SR1.5 million. Owing to this, he has not yet decided whether he will accept the company's offer or await the court's verdict. Mazen Al-Yahyia, a legal advisor in Riyadh, said, “International civil aviation laws do not require special needs passenger to fill out a medical form. They only prevent them from sitting near emergency doors and exits on the plane. Some airline companies require a healthy passenger to accompany a disabled passenger. However, in the case of Al-Sheheri, there were two passengers accompanying him.” Al-Yahyia said the General Court in Riyadh had sought the opinion of experts in civil aviation as the airline company told the court that international aviation laws make it mandatory for disabled passengers to fill out a medical form 48 hours prior to the flight, which Al-Sheheri did not do. Experts clarified to the court that such medical forms need only be filled out by people who suffer from diseases or need medical care during the flight, such as pregnant women in their last month and patients suffering from acute cardiac diseases. Thus, on these grounds, the court rejected the company's pleadings and backed the passenger's right of traveling on the flight in question. Al-Yahyia said that Al-Sheheri had passed the medical examination required by the scholarship committee which had determined that he was fit to travel to Australia. He added that Al-Sheheri has the legitimate right to accept the company's offer or ask for greater compensation due to the great material and psychological damages he suffered. He stressed that the law does not exclude special needs people from scholarships nor does it deprive them of occupying key posts in private and public institutions. __
