Dubai
A cleaner has been jailed for three months for hugging and molesting a six-year-old schoolboy outside a mosque shortly after Friday prayers.
The schoolboy’s Egyptian father was attending the Friday prayers inside the mosque while his children were waiting for him outside the mosque’s premises in December.
Once the prayers finished, the 45-year-old father walked out of the mosque and headed towards the shoe racks to take his shoes.
He saw the 47-year-old Indian cleaner with his son in suspicious circumstances, whereupon he scolded the cleaner and took his son away.
When the schoolboy told his father later that evening that the cleaner had groped his private parts and touched him indecently, the Egyptian reported the matter to the police who arrested the 47-year-old.
On Monday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of molesting the child.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the accused, who pleaded not guilty, will be deported.
The father testified that the incident happened while he was performing the Friday prayers.
“When I went out of the mosque to get my shoes, I saw the defendant touching the boy’s posterior in a strange way. I yelled at him and took my children home. Later in the evening my son told me that the accused had groped his private parts. I called the police immediately,” he testified.
A police sergeant, who questioned the defendant, testified to prosecutors: “Following his arrest, the cleaner denied touching the boy. He said when he saw the boy outside the mosque he just asked him about his age and school … he denied molesting the boy.”
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
