Dubai Court Jails Expat for Sexual Harassment

A Dubai expat was sentenced to jail for one year by the Court of First Instance on multiple charges, including defaming a woman of his nationality on social media.

The court earlier heard how the 40-year-old Pakistani man – a vendor – got angry when the woman rejected his sexual advances. He got even more upset after she moved out of their shared accommodation.

The court found him guilty of invading her privacy after he posted her personal photos on Facebook with inappropriate captions and also shared her number.

The court also convicted him of sexually harassing the woman. The defendant will be deported after completing his jail time.

The case dates back to August last year and was registered at Al Rashidiya police station.

The complainant, a 35-year-old Pakistani on a visit visa, said she arrived to the UAE on May 4 last year and stayed at flat of the defendant’s father who is a relative. “I stayed in the main room with other women and we paid rent.”

She recounted during investigation how she moved to another accommodation after the accused began sexually harassing her. “He would touch me often. He also told me not to look for a job and that he would support me if I had sex with him.”

After she rejected his offer and she moved out, the accused began sending text and voice messages to the friends and relatives of the complainant telling them that she is a bad woman and that she works in prostitution and would have sexual relations with married men then leave them after wrecking their marriages.

“He also opened many fake Facebook accounts where he posted my photos along with my phone number and bad words about me,” she told the prosecutor.

The defendant was arrested at the parking lot of a mall. “After receiving the complaint, we arrested him. He confessed he stole the woman’s photos from her mobile phone then opened a fake account on Facebook where he posted those photos with her number. He also sent her photos to her relatives in Pakistan to force her to have sex with him,” a police sergeant said.

The police searched the defendant’s place and seized the phone in which he kept the woman’s photos. The court ordered the confiscation of his phone. The accused, who remains in detention, has the right to appeal the ruling within 15 days.