Dubai: A restaurant manager and a waitress have been cleared of repeatedly bullying and insulting a cook and abusing him using a mobile phone at the restaurant where they worked.
Citing lack of corroborated evidence, the Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the Lebanese 24-year-old manager, E.E., and his 22-year-old countrywoman waitress, S.W., of committing a lewd act on the Pakistani cook, abusing and molesting him.
When the Lebanese couple showed up in court, they strongly refuted the accusation of throwing the cook on the kitchen floor where S.W. pinned him down while E.E. removed his clothes forcibly and tried to insert a mobile phone. Prosecutors said the alleged incident happened in a restaurant at Dubai Festival City.
“No, I did not do so,” the restaurant manager contended in court.
S.W. just said no before the court.
The cook alleged in his statement before prosecutors that the suspects constantly bullied him and treated him with disdain.
“S.W. used to come inside the kitchen and whack me on different parts of my body… E.E. also beat me several times and once he punched me on the head. The manager once hit me with a fork on my shoulder. The waitress once hit me with a kitchen tool… they also kicked me. They used to laugh whenever they assaulted me and called me names. On the day the incident happened, the suspects punched and cursed me.
“At first I was afraid to report them to the police because they were my managers and I did not want to lose my job,” he told prosecutors.
Court records cited the waitress admitting that she had abused the cook but said it was done as a joke.
Records said when the cook suffered an injury to his nose an ambulance was called and the police were informed about the incident.
The suspects’ lawyers asked presiding judge Mohammad Jamal to drop their clients’ accusations contending that the accusations were unfounded and malicious.
Tuesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
