Dubai: A worker has been jailed for three months for getting drunk and slapping a student on her bottom while she was walking with her grandmother near a mosque.
The 19-year-old Emirati student was accompanying her grandmother at 12.20pm when someone slapped her on her backside in October.
She turned around quickly and saw the 43-year-old Pakistani worker. She scolded the man, who seemed to be drunk, loudly and when he tried to run away, she called pedestrians for help and a group of men chased him and grabbed him.
The 19-year-old victim called the police who came and apprehended the Pakistani.
On Tuesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of molesting the student.
He pleaded not guilty in court and contended that he was drunk and might have mistakenly touched her posterior.
The defendant was present in the court when presiding judge Mohammad Jamal ordered prison wardens to take him into immediate custody.
The accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
The Dubai Misdemeanours Court fined the accused Dh2,000 for drinking alcohol.
The victim testified that the defendant molested her in the street while she was present with her grandmother in Freej Al Murar.
The grandmother confirmed her granddaughter’s claims and testified to prosecutors: “I suddenly heard my 19-year-old grandchild shouting … we were walking in front of a mosque when the defendant came and slapped her buttocks. She shouted at him and when he tried to abscond, pedestrians who were present in the vicinity stopped him.”
A police corporal said he was on duty in the same area when he spotted a crowd of people.
“Upon checking what had happened, the grandmother told me that the suspect had groped her granddaughter and slapped her on her posterior. When I asked the suspect, who was obviously drunk, if he had touched the girl, he didn’t respond,” the corporal testified.
Tuesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
