Civil defence officer made indecent gesture to fireman, Dubai court told

Civil Defence officer is accused of making an obscene gesture towards a fireman.

DUBAI // A Civil Defence officer has denied making a rude gesture and using profane language.

The Emirati, 39, folded down his middle finger and wiggled it from side to side while shaking a fireman’s hand, prosecutors told the Misdemeanours Court.

The incident happened last year at a Dubai Civil Defence branch directed by the accused.

The fireman, also Emirati, said he had known the officer for more than eight years but that their relationship deteriorated soon after a new director was appointed at the branch.

“Last year the officer started fooling me in front of my colleagues,” the fireman said. “Our relationship suffered but the new manager spoke to the officer and tried to patch the matters up between us.

“The officer apologised to me but deep inside he didn’t seem satisfied and then he started shaking hands with me in a bad way.

“Many times, he would invert his middle finger while shaking my hand and move it around in my forehand.”

The officer denied “doing anything bad” to the fireman and said his subordinate had been performing poorly at work.

“As the branch’s manager, I appointed the fireman to another branch because of his bad performance,” the officer said. “I had to develop the branch’s performance as we had a bad ranking compared to other branches and after I moved him and other workers, our performance improved.

“His colleagues washed his brain and let him lodge this untrue complaint.”

The next hearing was scheduled for December 10.