Dubai: Two engineers have been cleared of bid to kidnap a student they met at a landmark hotel and groping her as she threw herself out of their car.
The 20-year-old Saudi student alleged that she met three men at the hotel’s entrance that led to the beachside on a Friday at 2am.
One of the men walked up towards the student and chatted with her then talked her into adding him on Snapchat.
While doing so, the man suddenly vomited in front of her before one of his friends walked him away and the other friend stood there chatting with the 20-year-old girl.
As the other friend returned without the man who had vomited, the two men convinced the Saudi to go with them to a nearby gas station to buy food.
The duo, an Iranian and Emirati engineers stopped at the station and went down to purchase food while the student purchased cigarettes and they returned to the car.
The Emirati and Iranian men drove their car towards the beachside near the hotel and they went out to the beach to eat the food.
The student then asked the two men to drive her back to the hotel but when they didn’t respond and she heard them whispering, she got scared and went to the car, said records.
The duo went back to the car and when one of them allegedly tried to touch her, she pushed his hand away and tried to leave the car.
The student claimed that the men tried to pull her back into the car before she threw herself out of the car. She ran away towards the street and to her luck spotted a police car.
She alleged to the policemen that she had been kidnapped and molested but the duo had disappeared when the police checked the beachside.
Citing lack of substantiated evidence, the Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the two engineers of kidnap bid and groping the student.
The two had pleaded not guilty and refuted the charges.
The Saudi girl alleged to prosecutors that the incident happened after she met the duo in Jumeirah.
“I asked them to drop me back at the hotel. When they didn’t respond and heard them whispering, I suspected that they must have been planning something. I pressed on 911 but did not press dial. The two men came to the car. The Emirati sat beside me and touched me but I pushed his hand away and tried to leave the car. The Iranian blocked my way. They tried to force me into the car and they groped me while doing so. I resisted them and threw myself out of the car. I ran away and came across a police patrol and told them what had happened,” she testified to prosecutors.
A policeman testified that the student was barefoot, crying and confused when she told them what happened.
The ruling remains subject to appeal.
