Trader framed in groping case cleared

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A trader suspected to have snuck inside a female neighbour’s apartment and groped her has won a second acquittal at the Dubai Appeals Court.

The Arab defendant, 56, was inebriated when he entered the bedroom of a Moroccan saleswoman, 33, inside a Dubai building at midnight on Aug.3 last year and started encroaching on her. She resisted.

He slapped her face and battered her arms causing her injuries that took days to heal. He insulted her and smashed her Dhs4,000 iPhone when she tried to contact the police. She complained to Al Barsha Police Station.

The Criminal Court cleared him of molestation and referred counts of alcohol abuse, assault, trespassing, issuing insults and damaging property to the Misdemeanours Court. Prosecutors appealed but the Appeals Court upheld the ruling. 

In prosecution records, the saleswoman complained that at around 6am she was asleep in her bedroom when she woke up to someone pulling her by the hair. She was astonished to realise it was the defendant.

“It was a terrifying situation. I jumped out of bed and shouted,” she said. She tried to push him away but he clutched her and grabbed her by the hair. She resisted. He grabbed her by her blouse, tearing its shoulder area.

He uttered inappropriate words and beat her. She failed to free herself from his grip. He groped her.

She resisted with all her might and pushed him away. He grabbed her mobile from her and smashed it on the ground.

She continued screaming at him to get out. She pushed him towards the door. He again grabbed her by her hair as she repeatedly pushed him until he was out of the apartment. She locked the door with a key.

Ten minutes later, she ran down to the reception and alerted the building’s Pakistani watchman. “In the presence of the watchman, he begged me not to call the police. He offered to forfeit my damaged mobile phone.”