Dubai taxi driver denies molesting passenger

Pakistani allegedly told his Japanese passenger that he would be better sexually than her boyfriend before he molested her.

DUBAI // A Dubai taxi driver has denied forcing a female passenger to sit in the front seat next to him and molesting her.

“I don’t know her and she sat in the front seat on her own – I did not molest her,” Pakistani S M, 36, told Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday as he denied a sexual assault charge.

The 27-year-old Japanese passenger, M S, said she flagged a taxi at about 10pm on November 28 last year from the front of the Marriott hotel in Al Jaddaf.

“It was a Dubai Taxi, and I asked the driver to take me to my home in Al Nahda 1,” said the air hostess.

She said the driver told her to take the front seat and, as he drove, he started chatting with her, asking if she had a boyfriend.

“I told him yes, I did. Then he started telling me that, sexually, I would like him better,” said M S.

“He then stretched his arm and touched my thigh and stuck his hand under my clothes.”

She said she pushed his hand away, after which he asked her if she drank alcohol, then he grabbed her phone and saved his number in it, so she could call him and they could set up a date.

She said she called police when she got out of the taxi.

Police and prosecutors said that during questioning, the driver confessed to sexually assaulting the woman.

A verdict will be issued on February 10.