Up-skirt photos in Carrefour earn three-month sentence

Man convicted of trying to covertly take indecent pictures with his mobile phone camera.

DUBAI // An engineer was sentenced to three months in prison today for sexually assaulting several female shoppers at the Mall of the Emirates.

The 37-year-old AA, from Egypt, was convicted of assaulting the women at the Carrefour in the mall by taking pictures up their skirts.

Prosecutors said that on March 13, AA was reported by SM, a South African man, for trying to sneak his phone camera under SM's wife's legs.

SM said AA placed his shopping basket next to them in the checkout line, then pretended to look at magazines on nearby shelves. He noticed the camera and confronted AA.

TB, a security guard at the mall, said security received a complaint that a man was taking covert, indecent pictures.

He said surveillance camera footage showed AA hiding something in his shoes after SM confronted him. TB found AA's phone memory card hidden in his shoes, and said it contained recordings of women's underwear.

TB called police and provided them with the evidence.

AA's defence lawyer told the Dubai Court of First Instance that the man was the sole breadwinner for his wife and daughter and asked the judge to decrease the severity of the crime.