Dubai: A cook has been jailed for three months after a court convicted him on Sunday of secretly filming private parts of female passengers aboard the Dubai Metro.
The Dubai Court of First Instance found the 28-year-old Pakistani cook, B.S., guilty of sexually molesting an unidentified number of unknown women by taking footage of their private parts without their knowledge.
Prosecutors said the defendant used his mobile phone video camera to record footage of the private parts of women travelling on the Dubai Metro.
According to the accusation sheet, B.S. breached women’s privacy and modesty and took footage without their consent.
“I took video footage with some friends at random. I did not zoom in at women’s top or bottom but I took footage of general views,” argued B.S. when he defended himself in court.
Complaint to policeman
An Omani policeman, who was posted at the Al Rashidiya Metro Station, said a woman told him that she had spotted a Pakistani man taking photos of women’s private parts.
“The woman said she saw that person using his mobile phone in a suspicious way, taking secret snapshots of women. Afterwards, I suspected that B.S. must have been the person she intended. He immediately denied when I asked him whether he took photos of women on the Metro. When I checked the recordings, I found a video that showed the face of the same woman who had complained against him. The footage suggested that the defendant had zoomed his lens on women’s top and lower parts and shot a video. When I confronted him, he said he had taken general photos and did not zoom in on private parts,” the policeman said.
The defendant was arrested and taken in for questioning.
During prosecution and police questioning, B.S. was cited confessing that he had taken secret video footage of women.
Sunday’s judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
