DUBAI // A business owner accused of posing as a CID officer to kidnap and molest a woman was found not guilty by Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said that on May 18 last year, the Egyptian, S A, 30, approached a car containing two students revising for their exams and asked for their IDs.
“I was with my friend revising before an exam and waiting for a third friend so we could all head to the university together, then we heard a knocking on the window and, when my friend opened it, a man stuck his head in and said he was a CID and asked us what we were doing,” said Indian T D, 21.
She added that he asked her friend for his ID and then gave it back before asking him to leave and for her to accompany him to his car.
“He said he would take me home but I told him I would go on my own, then he threatened to file a police report so I got scared because in two hours I had an exam that I didn’t want to miss,” she said.
In her testimony the student said he drove her around before going to a sandy area, where he touched her chest and asked her to touch him back.
“I refused and was scared. I asked him to let me go then tried to open the door and, while doing that, I saw someone passing by, so the driver got scared and let me go but asked for my number or he will report that I meet my friend in the car and he kept my ID with him,” she said.
For the next two days she said he kept calling and harassing her so she reported the matter to police.
The student’s friend, M J, 23, said: “He told us that we were doing inappropriate actions in the car and said he would refer us to police.
“He showed me a police ID but I couldn’t see it clearly.”
The friend said that the man had a transceiver and used it to talk to someone before writing down his car number plate.
Last August the Egyptian denied charges of molestation, impersonation of an officer of the law and kidnapping a woman.
On Tuesday morning he was acquitted of all charges but a reason for the verdict was not given.
salamir@thenational.ae
