Worker tells Dubai court kissing 9-year-old boy was innocent

Boy claims the Pakistani man carried him, kissed him on the lips and then hugged him before leaving.

DUBAI // A worker said that a kiss he gave to a 9-year-old boy was innocent and he had no ill intentions, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Wednesday.

“It was a kiss on the cheek and it was an innocent kiss,” said the Pakistani accused, 29.

Prosecutors said that on March 19, he kissed the boy on the lips, not the cheek, and hugged him from behind.

The child’s father, a 36-year-old Filipino engineer, said that his boy called him at noon on the day of the incident and told him that the worker came to check their water supply.

“He told me that after the man entered our flat in Jebel Ali, he carried him, kissed him on the lips then hugged him before he left,” said the father.

The man called police and the accused was apprehended on March 27.

Prosecutors said he admitted a sex assault charge during investigations.

However, he denied it in court and awaits a verdict on May 31.