Dubai: A merchant has been jailed for three months for tricking a schoolgirl by promising to teach her horse riding and molesting her inside an elevator of a building where she lives.
The 39-year-old Iranian merchant walked into the lift in the building at Al Barsha when he saw the nine-year-old Syrian schoolgirl in February.
The girl had just finished playing in the play area around 6.30pm and entered the lift wanting to go up home, when the Iranian man came in as well.
The man was supposed to get off on a floor before the girl, but he stayed on in the elevator.
Then he asked the girl if she knew how to ride horses and molested her on the pretext of showing her how to sit on a horse.
The girl ran out of the lift once it stopped on her floor and told her mother about what had happened.
The mother took the girl down in the lift and once she saw the Iranian man, the girl pointed her finger at him.
On Tuesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of molesting the minor girl although he had pleaded not guilty and denied touching the child.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
The girl’s mother said her daughter came into the flat and she wanted her brother to accompany her in the lift downstairs.
“She insisted on her brother to escort her to the ground floor … she was yelling. When I stood beside her, I realised that she was scared and her heartbeats were quick. I asked her to change her clothes and told her that I would take her down. When we were in the lift, she told me what had happened and imitated what the defendant had done to her. When the lift reached the fifth floor, the door opened. Immediately she pointed her finger at a person [suspect] who was standing there. The accused seemed petrified … when I asked him if he had touched my girl, he said no. He said that he just taught her how do to an exercise in the lift and apologised if he had done anything wrong. I alerted the building’s security guards who called the police,” she testified. Tuesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
