Dubai — A cleaner has been accused of hugging and molesting a six-year-old schoolboy outside a mosque shortly after a Friday prayer ceremony had finished, a court heard on Monday.
The schoolboy’s Egyptian father was said to have been attending the Friday prayers inside the mosque while his children were waiting for him outside the mosque’s premises in December.
Once the prayers finished, the 45-year-old father walked out of the mosque, according to records, and headed towards the shoe racks to take his shoes.
He saw the 47-year-old Indian cleaner with his son in suspicious circumstances, whereupon he scolded the cleaner, took his son away.
When the schoolboy told his father later that evening that the cleaner had groped his private parts and touched him indecently, the Egyptian reported the matter to the police who arrested the 47-year-old.
Prosecutors accused the suspect of molesting the child.
The Indian suspect pleaded not guilty and rejected the accusations before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.
The father told prosecutors that the incident happened while he was performing the Friday prayers.
“When I went out of the mosque to get my shoes, I saw the suspect touching the boy’s posterior in a strange way. I yelled at him and took my children home. Later in the evening my son told me that the suspect had groped his private parts. I reported the matter to the police immediately,” he testified to prosecutors.
A police sergeant, who questioned the suspect, testified to prosecutors: “Following his arrest, the suspect denied touching the boy. He claimed that when he saw the boy outside the mosque he just asked him about his age and school … he denied molesting the boy.”
The trial continues.
