DUBAI // A 32-year-old woman accused of molesting a man in a lift before robbing him was found guilty by Dubai Criminal Court and sentenced to six months in jail.
Unemployed Jordanian S S hit on men as a distraction before stealing from them, prosecutors said.
She still faces trial in a similar case where she is accused of molesting an Indian man and robbing him of Dh4,500.
On December 16 last year, she knocked on the car door of Iranian G T, 45, while he was parked on Khalid bin Al Waleed Street, Bur Dubai, and asked him to help her move some items from her nearby flat.
“I went with her and walked towards a nearby building, in which she claimed her flat was located, then took the lift,” he said. “She pressed for the third floor and, as the door closed, she suddenly hugged me, kissed me on the cheeks and touched me while saying that her husband did not love or satisfy her and that she needed men in her life.”
He pushed her away and left the lift when it stopped.
“I returned to my car and, shortly after, noticed that I no longer had my wallet, which contained US$1,100 (Dh4,040) and Dh6,400 and I immediately realised that the woman robbed me,” said the Iranian, who called police and reported the incident.
The following day police received a similar report from Indian M A, 23, claiming that he was kissed repeatedly in the lift of a building in Bur Dubai by a woman in niqab before she stole his wallet.
The woman denied charges of sexual assault and theft relating to the incident with the Iranian.
In court, S S said she was a “God-fearing Muslim woman who would never do such an act”.
The Indian man was heading to an office on December 17 when the incident happened and the woman was in the lift when he entered.
“She was in a face veil and abaya, I got into the lift and the door closed. Then I pressed ‘four’,” the man said.
He said she asked him how he was before she lifted up her veil and approached him. “She suddenly came closer and hugged me. I pushed her away but she was holding on to me and stuck her body to mine.”
The lift stopped on the fourth floor and, as the man tried to escape her grip to get out of the lift, she pulled him back inside.
“She actually managed to pull me back, then she pressed on floor seven and, as the door closed, she started touching me on my private parts,” he said.
He pressed for floor four again, but she kissed him repeatedly and touched him several times before he could break free and get out of the lift.
“When I later checked my wallet, which was in my back pocket, I noticed that Dh4,500 was missing and I realised that she had robbed me,” M A said.
The man called police, who arrested S S, and later identified her at a police station.
At Dubai Criminal Court, the Jordanian was found guilty of the first incident and was sentenced to six months in jail, to be followed by deportation.
The next hearing for her other case will be on May 12.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
