Dubai: A military officer won his appeal on Wednesday as a court cleared him of posing as a Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) inspector, luring a stewardess into his car and molesting her.
In March, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the 47-year-old Emirati man for six months for posing as an RTA inspector, luring the woman to his car and abusing her sexually.
The suspect appealed the primary ruling and sought to prove his innocence before the Dubai Appeal Court.
When he showed up at the appellate court, he denied the accusation that he had posed as an RTA inspector when he stopped the stewardess in Abu Hail area and asked her for her driving licence in November.
He also refuted the accusation that he talked her into riding in his car and molesting her.
On Wednesday, presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm overturned the six-month jail term and acquitted the suspect due to lack of substantiated evidence.
The officer had refuted the woman’s allegations that he tricked her and lured her into his car where he touched her indecently.
The stewardess had alleged in her statement that the incident happened while she was driving from her residence in Al Mamzar to Abu Hail.
“I went to the parking lot to take the company’s shuttle at 4am. The man asked me to pull over after he claimed that he worked for RTA. I showed him the car registration [papers] but he wanted to see my licence. I told him that I had forgotten it at home. Then he told me to go with him in his car to get the licence ... On the way, he took a different route. When I asked him why he had taken a different route, he claimed that he could fine me Dh2,000. I sat in the front passenger seat … he touched me indecently,” she claimed.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.
