Dubai: A guard has been jailed for six months for harassing and groping a schoolteacher and filming her while she was in her car with a co-worker in front of a football club.
The 30-year-old French teacher had just finished work and agreed to drive her compatriot co-worker to his residence when the 27-year-old Egyptian guard, who worked at the football club, harassed and stalked her and groped her in February.
Shortly after the French teachers had sat in the car, the guard came in front of the vehicle and started clicking photos using his phone.
When the teachers asked him, why he was taking their photos, the Egyptian came near the driver’s window and filmed her.
The teacher felt scared and instantly turned her face before the 27-year-old grabbed her face and took a clear photo of her and then groped her.
The defendant then told the co-worker, who spoke a little bit of Arabic, to tell the Frenchwoman that he wanted to sit with her in the back seat for five minutes.
The Egyptian then removed the car keys and kept them with him before he forced himself into the car and joined the French couple.
A few minutes later, the 27-year-old guard stepped out of the car as he received a phone call and left.
The teacher and her co-worker left for their homes by taxi and when the woman returned the next morning, she discovered that her car had been removed. She called up the police and reported that her car had disappeared after what had happened the previous night.
Later, the woman was notified that someone had called the police to report that a couple had been sitting in a car alone and then left the car parked in a wrong place and disappeared. The car was towed away by the police.
Thereafter, the 30-year-old woman informed the police about what the Egyptian had done to them.
On Tuesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of groping the Frenchwoman and threatening to disrepute her by informing the police that she had been sitting in the car with a strange man.
He was also found guilty of stalking the woman and breaching her privacy by telling her that he wanted to be alone with her so he could molest her. Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the defendant’s phone [that was used to take the photos] will be confiscated. The accused will be deported after serving his punishment.
The 27-year-old accused had pleaded not guilty and that he had taken photos of the woman because she had parked her car wrongly in the parking lot in front of the football club.
Meanwhile, the Frenchwoman testified that her car had been parked between the club and the school where she worked.
“He came to us suddenly and started filming us … he alleged that it was against the UAE laws for a woman to sit with a stranger in a car alone. I was new in town and I was not aware of that … he made me scared. He took my car keys and spoke to my co-worker in Arabic. Then he groped me twice and I pushed his hands away. I refused to sit with him in the back seat … he left when he received a call and took my car keys with him,” she said.
A police sergeant said the defendant admitted to him that he had mistakenly touched the teacher’s top when he removed the keys from the car.
Tuesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
