Dubai: A businessman was cleared of kissing and molesting a jobseeker during a job interview in his company after his lawyer convinced the court that the woman complainant was lying.

The Filipina reported to have been searching for a job when she went to the Indian businessman’s company for an interview. He allegedly kissed and molested her after he asked her to make him coffee, according to her complaint.

The jobseeker claimed that she communicated with the 45-year-old businessman, who called her in for an interview in January. During the interview, the woman alleged that the businessman came from behind and planted a kiss on her cheeks and molested her inside the canteen.

“The Filipina is a liar. She lied about being kissed and molested … my client didn’t touch her. She fabricated the molestation claims, which she later dropped after taking money. She was afraid to show up before prosecutors where she could have been discovered to have lied in her police statement,” the businessman’s lawyer Faisal Al Zarouni argued before the Dubai Court of First Instance. The Filipina also signed a handwritten confession before a notary public confirming that she had fabricated the allegations against the businessman and that what she told the police was not true, defended lawyer Al Zarouni.

Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi acquitted the suspect due to lack of evidence.

Al Zarouni also defended in court that the law enforcement procedures were unlawfully and improperly carried out against his client.

Records said the Filipina’s cries forced the businessman to refrain from going any further and when he let her go, she reported the matter to the police.

When he appeared in court, the Indian man pleaded not guilty and strongly refuted the woman’s allegations.

The Filipina claimed that the incident happened when she went for a job interview on the premises of the suspect’s company in Al Rafaa.

“He told me that I would be hired and then asked me to make him a coffee. As I was preparing the coffee, the man came from behind and kissed me suddenly and molested me. He did that after he had closed the office door. When he hugged me, I screamed and asked him to stay back. He only stopped from molesting me and stepped back once I shouted louder at him,” she claimed to prosecutors.

A policeman, who questioned the suspect, testified to prosecutors: “The suspect claimed he was seduced by the devil and admitted that he molested the jobseeker while they were alone in his office. When he was at the police station, the suspect offered the woman a job at his company against waiving her complaint.”

“The suspect was questioned in the absence of a legal translator … it was the interrogating policeman, who questioned him in Urdu. As per the Criminal Procedures Law, a legal translator should be provided to question suspects,” contended Al Zarouni.

The ruling remains subject to appeal.