Dubai: A cleaner has been jailed for three months for hugging a nine-year-old girl in a restaurant’s washroom and stealing two kisses from her while she was washing her hands.
The 28-year-old Bangladeshi cleaner, A.H., approached the Egyptian girl, who was standing at the sink, from behind and hugged and kissed her against her will in December.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of molesting the girl despite having entered a not guilty plea.
Presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat said A.H. will be deported following the completion of his jail term.
The girl said the accused asked her if she was a Muslim and told her that she should not tell her mother what happened.
She was quoted claiming to prosecutors that she went with her family for dinner on a Friday evening.
“When I finished, I went to wash my hands in the restroom. While I was walking inside, I saw the cleaner but I did not pay much attention to him. Suddenly he told me ‘you are friend’ in Arabic and hugged me… then he kissed me two times. I got confused and did not know what to do because I was alone in the washroom. I rushed to the nearest cubicle and locked myself inside and waited. Later, I opened the door and walked out. The defendant then asked me if I was Muslim and told me not to tell my mother what he had done. He told me that five times in poor Arabic,” she said.
The girl’s mother testified that her daughter was in a hysterical condition and seemed frightened and confused when she came out of the washroom.
“When I took her little brother to the washroom, I noticed her storming out of there. When I asked her what happened, she told me that the defendant kissed her twice and hugged her against her will,” the mother told prosecutors.
Police arrested A.H. once the girl’s family reported the matter.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
