Dubai: A clerk lost his appeal and will spend three months in jail for molesting a schoolgirl while her mother was busy ironing and he was giving her private Quran lessons at home.
The 36-year-old Bangladeshi clerk, M.M., touched the minor American girl inappropriately last October.
The Dubai Appeal Court dismissed M.M.’s appeal for acquittal and upheld his three-month imprisonment.
The accused pleaded not guilty and contended that the case was fabricated out of malice by the girls’ parents.
Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm said the defendant will be deported after serving his jail term.
Prosecutors accused M.M. of exploiting the fact that the girl was alone with him in the room when he groped her.
The girl’s American mother said M.M. used to give Quran recitation lessons to her daughter.
“The defendant and my daughter used to sit alone in the dining room during the lessons on Fridays and Saturdays. One afternoon, I was ironing in the other room when I heard my daughter saying ‘stop doing this’. When I went to check what was happening, I saw my daughter clutching her hijab and standing beside the wall… she seemed scared. When I asked her what had happened, she gave me a very strange look. I asked her to finish her lesson. She confessed to me that the defendant had molested her several times. My girl said that the accused had been touching her inappropriately since September. Thereafter I called the defendant and asked him to stop coming to our place before I informed the police,” claimed the mother.
The girl was quoted telling prosecutors that the defendant molested her more than twice.
Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.
