Dubai: A driver has challenged his three-month imprisonment and renewed his not-guilty plea when he denied before the Dubai Appeal Court molesting a drunk woman who blacked out in his taxi.
In October, the Dubai Court of Instance sentenced the 30-year-old Pakistani taxi driver, S.A., to three months in jail for molesting the 22-year-old Lebanese woman who fell asleep in the back seat.
“I did not touch her… she fabricated the allegations that I molested her. She must have been imagining things,” S.A. contended before presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif in courtroom 20.
Prosecutors accused the driver of groping the Lebanese woman who slept in the back seat of his taxi while driving her home at 4.30am. She was with her friend when they flagged down the taxi in Dubai Downtown in April.
Records said the taxi driver dropped the friend first and, when the saleswoman slept in the back seat, he took advantage of her and molested her.
Meanwhile his lawyer argued before the appellate court: “The claimant’s allegations are baseless and her version of the incident is illogical. It would have been impossible and absurd for my client to have groped the woman under a bridge and in an area that is full of people. The driver did not touch her… she must have been hallucinating or dreaming considering that she was totally drunk and had blacked out.”
The lawyer asked presiding judge Al Sharif to overturn the primary ruling and acquit his client.
According to the primary ruling, S.A. will be deported after serving his punishment.
The Lebanese woman said the incident happened when S.A. drove to her house in Jumeirah Lakes Towers.
“I was under the influence of liquor… I was very sleepy so I slept in the back seat. I woke up suddenly when the driver was trying to put a pillow behind my head. When I screamed at him, he forced me to stay down so that nobody noticed us,” she said.
Records said the defendant parked his taxi on the right side of the road before he groped the woman.
In his defence argument, the lawyer countered the woman’s claims and explained that his client just woke the claimant once he reached the address. A police corporal said the saleswoman was drunk and crying when she called the police. She complained that the driver had molested her, said the corporal.
The appellate ruling will be heard next week.
