Dubai: An Omani businessman has been accused of groping a woman shopper while she was with her family at Dubai Mall, a court heard on Thursday.
The incident happened when the victim, an Egyptian, was at the food court on a Friday evening in August.
While walking, she felt someone touching her bottom, according to court records.
The shopper, aged 25, said she was shocked and couldn’t move for a few seconds before she turned around and told her sister-in-law about what had happened.
Shortly after, she alerted her brother, who went after the businessman, 58, in the mall and called the police.
The police apprehended the man and took him in for questioning.
Prosecutors accused the suspect of groping the woman, saying he walked very close to the woman and touched her.
He pleaded not guilty and denied the accusation on appearing before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
The suspect also handed presiding judge Habib Awad a written defence in which he asked to be acquitted.
The complainant told prosecutors: “I felt that he touched my back intentionally. I was shocked and stood there stifled for a few seconds. Then I told my sister-in-law that the suspect groped me. When I told my brother, he walked behind the suspect and also called the police,” she testified to prosecutors.
Prosecution records said that the suspect was arrested earlier on similar charges, during the Dubai Shopping Festival in 2005, when he would squeeze in between groups of women or stand close to them.
He had been released earlier on bail after signing an undertaking not to repeat such acts.
A ruling will be heard on October 8.
