Worker accused of posing as policeman, molesting girl
Suspect asks teenager to produce ID before sexual assault
Dubai: A worker has been accused of posing as a policeman and pretending to be walking a schoolgirl, 16, to a police office at a mall before he pulled her aside and molested her.
The 16-year-old Syrian schoolgirl was said to be walking around Dubai Festival City with a school friend during Eid Al Adha in August.
Once they got out of the mall to take taxi at 11.45pm, a 31-year-old Egyptian worker who claimed to be a policeman stopped them, according to records.
He demanded to see their personal identification papers before he took the Syrian girl, who didn’t have her papers on her, to the police office.
Records said the worker walked the girl for about 20 minutes around the Dubai Festival City until he made her sit at an isolated sandy area.
He allegedly told the girl that he didn’t want her to be cross-examined by a harsh police lieutenant, whom he had pretended to be talking to over the phone.
While she was seated on the ground, the worker pinned her down and molested her.
Records said the girl told her father about what had happened after the worker dropped her back home by taxi.
The father reported the matter to police, following which the worker was apprehended from his house in Sharjah.
Prosecutors charged the suspect with impersonating a policeman and molesting the girl.
The Egyptian suspect pleaded not guilty and refuted his accusation when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
“I did not say I am policeman …,” he told presiding judge Mohammad Jamal.
The Syrian teenager claimed to prosecutors that the suspect asked her to accompany him to the police office because she did not have her identification papers.
“He also didn’t allow my friend to come with us. He walked me for around 20 minutes and pretended to be talking over the phone with his supervisor. Then he told me that the lieutenant who was on the duty shift that time was a rough person and he didn’t want me to land in trouble.
He had claimed to us that boys and girls were not allowed to be alone at the mall late at night. Then he asked me to sit down at an open area where he told me to remove my blouse and sit on it. Then he forced himself on me and molested me. Shortly after he dropped me back home by taxi, I told my dad what had happened,” she testified to prosecutors.
A police lieutenant claimed to prosecutors that the suspect was identified from CCTV cameras.
A ruling will be heard on October 21.