Dubai: A lawyer has accused a woman of blackmailing her client and trying to extort money from him but when he refused, she accused him malevolently of groping her.

The 27-year-old Egyptian vet had pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance and firmly refuted the 21-year-old Iranian woman’s claims that he molested her in October.

“The suspect had nothing to do with this unfounded case that the woman lodged out of malice. Her statement was full of contradictions. Her main aim was to blackmail my client and extort money from … when he refused to pay her money, she lodged this false and baseless case,” the vet’s lawyer, Salwa Al Hariri, told the court.

The Iranian woman claimed that she had just left a friend’s place when she came across the suspect and his friend in a building’s lift in October.

The woman had just entered the lift and was busy using her phone, according to records, when the two men walked in behind her in a building at Al Maktoum Street.

Once she finished her call, the suspect asked her if she was Egyptian, and she replied that she was Iranian, according to the records.

The vet slapped the woman in her face and groped her after she refused to give him her phone number, she alleged.

She claimed that the suspect continued groping her for nearly five minutes until the lift stopped and the friend went out.

“She is the one who called my client. She had aimed to trap him because he is a reputable vet and thought she could blackmail him and become rich. The whole case was based on the woman’s claims … she had fabricated this devilish story, the details and scenario of which were obviously illogical. She alleged to have been groped for five minutes in the presence of another person! Is that possible? Is it logical? Supposedly, her claims were true about having been groped, how come she didn’t call for help? Why didn’t she ask the building’s cleaners to help her stop the suspect and call the security? All her claims were based on lies,” contended lawyer Al Hariri in courtroom three.

According to the complainant, the suspect spoke dirty with her and persisted that she gave him her number which she finally did, as she was too frightened.

“Prosecutors did not present any valid or substantial evidence against my client. Besides, there is a major contradiction between the woman’s statement and the technical evidence. Later on, the woman waived her complaint because she knew that she had lied. The policeman, who had accused my client of assaulting him, also dropped his case against the vet,” defended Al Hariri, who asked the court to clear her client.

A ruling will be heard on April 24.