Dubai: Prosecutors lost their appeal on Wednesday against a woman who was acquitted of hugging and kissing a man in the corner of a lift and stealing Dh4,500 from him.
The woman was involved in a similar case, in which she was jailed for six-month for molesting an Iranian man in an elevator and robbing his Dh10,400 after seducing him in December.
The Indian man had claimed that when he entered a lift in the building where he works, the Jordanian woman followed him and pushed him into a corner and groped him.
The Dubai Appeal Court rejected prosecutors’ appeal in which they sought the cancellation of the woman’s acquittal and wanted her jailed.
“The court has rejected the prosecutors’ appeal and upheld the woman’s acquittal,” said presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm.
The court cleared the suspect citing lack of corroboration, and insufficient evidence.
“I pressed the fourth-floor button when the woman lifted her niqab. She threw herself towards me before she kissed me forcibly. She also molested me. She pulled me back into the elevator when I tried to walk away. She groped me again and hugged me. Afterwards, I discovered that she had also taken my wallet that contained Dh4,500,” the man alleged.
However, the Jordanian woman strongly dismissed what she described as the man’s fabricated story when she defended herself in court.
“He is a liar. I am an upright woman and would never do such irreligious and immoral acts,” the woman told the court.
The Indian man had claimed to prosecutors that the incident happened when he was going to office in Bur Dubai.
“The woman stood in a corner and she wore a veil. As the lift started going up, she lifted her face cover and asked me in Arabic ‘how are you?’ She threw both her arms around me and hugged me. She pressed her body against mine and prevented me from moving her away. Then she pressed the button for the seventh floor. She hugged me again and kissed me and groped me. I ran out of the lift once it reached the seventh floor,” he claimed.
However the woman dismissed the man’s claims.
Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.
