Dubai: A legal adviser lost his appeal and will be jailed for three months for stalking a housewife, trespassing into her flat and molesting her while her husband was detained.
The 39-year-old Egyptian legal adviser attempted to befriend his client’s Algerian wife and gave her gifts and flowers in February 2014.
He even asked to date her on Valentine’s Day of the same year.
The legal adviser told the woman to enjoy her life because her husband’s confinement would last long due to the number of cases lodged against him.
The defendant went to the woman’s flat and forced his way into it and molested the woman.
In August, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the accused for three months for trespassing into the victim’s flat and molesting her.
Records said the Algerian woman injured her hand with a pocket-knife in the keychain when she tried to defend herself.
The defendant appealed his primary judgement before the Appeal Court and sought to have his punishment overturned.
Prosecutors also appealed the same ruling and sought a tougher punishment against the legal adviser.
Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm rejected the two appeals and upheld the defendant’s three-month jail term.
According to the appellate ruling, the accused, who pleaded not guilty in court, will be deported.
The woman said the incident happened after her husband phoned her from prison to inform her that he had arranged a lawyer for his bail.
“My husband called up a lawyer, who told him that he would send a legal adviser from his office to communicate with me to go to the public prosecution for the bail procedures. The defendant [legal adviser] picked me and my children and took us to see my husband and then we went to the public prosecution. Then he started contacting and sending messages to me. When I asked him to stop doing so, he sent gifts and told me to live my life and not to wait for my husband whom he claimed would stay long in prison. He stalked me continuously and asked me to go out with him on Valentine’s Day. He placed flowers and perfumes at my doorstep. I asked the suspect to stop contacting me otherwise, I would report him to the police and tell my husband about it. He dared me to do so … when my husband was released, I was afraid to tell him about it. One day when my husband was in Abu Dhabi, I heard the doorbell … thinking it was my children who had been playing outside and I answered the door. It was the defendant, who forced his way into the flat and molested me. I injured my hand while defending myself … he ran away and I went to hospital where I had three stitches,” she said.
The ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court.
