Dubai: A 64-year-old businessman has been accused of molesting a woman while she was shopping at a store in Deira.
The elderly Sudanese businessman, B.D., was said to have walked behind the woman, who was wearing a niqab, in the store and patted her head and shoulders and groped her in February.
Prosecutors accused B.D. of molesting the woman.
The suspect pleaded not guilty and refuted his accusation when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said the suspect touched the woman’s back and shoulders and head against her will.
A police sergeant claimed to prosecutors that the woman reported to the police that she had been molested at the store at 5pm.
“The suspect was still at the store when we arrested him … the claimant alleged that he chatted with her daughter before he groped her. When I first questioned the suspect, he dismissed the woman’s allegations. He alleged that he only told her that he liked her … then I informed the suspect that the store was full of CCTV cameras, thereafter he admitted that he patted her head. When I told him that the woman had claimed that he [B.D.] groped her, the latter claimed that it happened by mistake. When I asked him what had meant by saying that he liked her, the suspect claimed that he liked her appearance since she wore an abaya and a niqab. The woman claimed that the suspect groped her twice. The CCTV footage did not clearly show what happened since the spot where the alleged incident took place was out of sight,” he testified to prosecutors.
The woman was quoted telling prosecutors that the suspect played with her daughter, who was in a stroller, first before he molested her. The trial continues.
