Dubai: A technician lost his appeal and will spend two years behind bars for pulling a 14-year-old schoolboy into a mosque’s washroom and trying to rape him.

The Pakistani boy was waiting for his chauffeur to pick him up to school at 12pm when the 52-year-old Sudanese technician called him in March 2017.

The defendant had parked his vehicle beside the mosque when he called the boy and invited him to watch a movie on his mobile phone.

When the boy refused to comply, the technician came out of his car, pulled the boy into the washroom then locked himself up inside with him and tried to have sex with him.

Two Iranian students, who were present near the mosque, saw the man taking the boy into the washroom against his will.

When one of them followed the two to the washroom, the 18-year-old student noticed that both the man and the boy had entered the same cubicle. The student then knocked on the door and asked how many persons were inside before someone responded that there was one person.

The defendant opened the door, rushed to his car and drove away while the students called up the boy’s father, who reported the matter to the police.

In March, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the defendant for two years for confining the boy in the washroom and attempting to rape him.

The accused appealed his primary judgement before the Appeal Court and sought to be acquitted.

Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm rejected the defendant’s appeal and upheld his two-year jail term.

The accused, who had pleaded not guilty, will be deported following the completion of his punishment.

The boy said he kept his schoolbag aside and went to drink water from a freezer beside the mosque when the accused called him.

“He pushed me into the washroom and then he muzzled me and forced me into the last cubicle where he locked the door. He dropped his pants down and tried to remove mine but someone knocked on the door. Then he opened the door and left in a hurry,” the boy said.

The 18-year-old student testified that he saw them both entering the same cubicle.

“I told my friend and he told me to film them to use that as proof in case anything bad happened. Then my friend knocked on the door and when he asked how many persons were inside, the defendant replied “one” … then he absconded,” the student said.

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