Dubai: An employee lost his appeal and will spend three months in jail for grabbing his colleague’s hand and kissing it when she tried to pick up her pen in a hall.
The Indian airline employee, M.A., was helping his 26-year-old Emirati colleague while she was undergoing an online aviation test and touched and kissed her hand against her will in February.
The Dubai Appeal Court rejected M.A.’s appeal and confirmed his three-month imprisonment for molesting the woman despite having entered a not guilty plea. “I did not touch or kiss her hand,” the defendant argued when he pleaded innocent before the appellate court.
Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm said the accused will be deported following the completion of his jail term.
Prosecutors said the defendant molested the Emirati woman by kissing her hand while they were present at one of the halls of Dubai International Airport.
The 26-year-old woman said M.A. had been her work supervisor for nearly one year before the incident took place.
“I was stationed at the customer service counter at Terminal 2 when a colleague of mine asked me to take a break at 11.30pm. I went to the rest area and there I met the defendant. He offered to bring me tea, but I refused. Then he informed me that there was an online aviation test … we headed to the testing room and logged in to the system. He offered to help me while doing the test, but I did not pass. Then he asked me not to worry and promised to help me pass … in the meantime, my pen fell on the floor. When I knelt down to pick it up, he grabbed my hand and kissed it. Then he told me ‘I will help you pass the exam, don’t worry’. I drew my hand back quickly and left the room. The next day my husband and I complained to the police,” she claimed.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 27 days.
