Dubai courts: Prosecutors lose appeal against clerk

Dubai: Prosecutors lost their appeal against a clerk who was cleared of locking up a man inside a travel and tourism agency office for two hours with the electricity and air-cooling switched off.

The Pakistani man called the police and told them that the 31-year-old Egyptian clerk had locked him up in the agency’s office and walked away in March.

A police patrol was dispatched to the office at Al Khaleej Road and when they found the door locked, they called the clerk.

The Egyptian man did not respond until police contacted him via one of his flatmates.

The 31-year-old headed to the office and opened the door before the man walked out and seemed in a normal condition but was sweating.

In July, the Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the clerk of illegally confining his the Pakistani man in the agency.

Prosecutors appealed the primary judgement before the Appeal Court and asked to have his conviction overturned.

Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm refuted prosecutors’ appeal and upheld the Egyptian man’s innocence citing lack of evidence.

The man contended in the appellate court that he did not lock the complainant inside the agency.

His lawyer argued in court that the agency’s office has a glass door and had the claimant been purportedly confined inside, why didn’t he smash the glass door and free himself?

“His claim that the air-cooler was switched off was a lie. The remote was there and he could have switched it on. He gave a contradicting and inconsistent statement,” argued the lawyer.

A corporal claimed that the Pakistani man reported to the police that he was confined in the agency at midnight.

“We called the suspect to come and open the door, he didn’t respond. He came to the agency after we contacted one of his flatmates. The man claimed that the clerk had locked him inside,” he claimed.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court.