Dubai teacher wins appeal in student molestation case

Dubai: A teacher has won his legal battle as he was acquitted of showing a schoolgirl indecent photos on the internet and molesting her in a classroom. The Dubai Appeals Court rejected the prosecutors’ appeal to overturn the acquittal of the 39-year-old Egyptian teacher, J.F., and imprison him.

The teacher had strongly refuted the accusations of molesting the British schoolgirl and accused the school’s director of fabricating the case against him.

Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm upheld the innocence of J.F., who had entered a not guilty plea contending that the allegations brought against him were unfounded.

The Egyptian said the director fabricated the case against him due to a personal dispute between them.

Prosecutors said the teacher made the British schoolgirl (who was under the age of 14) look at indecent photos on his laptop at school before he molested her.

The British school director testified that the girl’s mother complained to him on May 5 that J.F. had molested her daughter and made her watch pornographic material on the internet.

“The school director had a previous dispute with my client, who was a member of the board of trustees. During one of the board’s meetings, J.F. gave a list of recommendations and remarks. The director did not like those remarks. When nothing was done, my client resigned… the director rejected his resignation and threatened J.F. The director brought this case against the teacher out of malice,” J.F.’s advocate Hamdi Al Sheewi said before the appellate court.

“J.F. is a religious man. He helped three detainees embrace Islam while he was being detained. It is impossible for someone like him to behave like that. The director claimed that he did not know anything about the defendant accessing indecent websites before May 5. A school staff, who monitors the internet, claimed to the police that she informed the director on April 25 that J.F. had visited indecent websites on April 18. The director gave inconsistent statements. Someone else could have used my client’s laptop that is always kept at school,” argued Al Sheewi.

The appellate verdict remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.