ABU DHABI // An athlete who molested a 12-year-old boy he met on social media will spend a year in jail, the second appeals court to look his case has ruled.
The boy, who was a fan of the Emirati football player, OH, who was 21 at the time, started communicating with him on Twitter, then they exchanged BlackBerry messenger pin numbers.
The parents of the boy noticed their son was acting nervously and they found the text messages in his phone and reported the incident to police.
The text messages presented to court showed that the boy agreed to sexual contact with the player.
However, the law considers any person of 12-years-of-age or under as lacking the capability of consent and therefore is considered a victim.
The Criminal Court sentenced the athlete to two years in jail in 2013.
Both the defendant and public prosecution appealed the verdict.
The first appeals court responded to prosecution requests to increase the sentence and changed it to three years.
At the Court of Cassation, the verdict was rejected and bounced back to appeals due to procedural errors.
The second appeals court issued a new verdict to sentence the athlete to one year in jail.
hdajani@thenational.ae
