Dubai: A manager won his appeal as a court cleared him of hugging a female employee and groping her when she arrived at his office to get her labour contract translated.

The 28-year-old Chinese woman had visited her 38-year-old countryman’s office at Dubai International City to get her labour contract translated in June 2017.

The manager asked the woman, who had known the man for a few months, to translate her contract by herself and provided her with a desktop for the same.

While translating her contract, the woman alleged that the manager came from behind and hugged her before she pulled herself away and shyly told him that she had to leave.

She further claimed that when she tried to leave, the man pulled her to another room, where he hugged and groped her.

The manager’s grip was too tight for the woman, according to her allegations, to wriggle out but once she did, she ran out of the office and called the police.

In September, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the man to three months in jail for molesting the woman.

The man appealed his primary judgement and asked the Dubai Appeal Court to acquit him.

On Wednesday, presiding judge Dr Ahmad Al Mutawa overturned the three-month imprisonment and acquitted the suspect due to lack of corroborated evidence.

The man had pleaded not guilty and escribed the woman’s allegation as “malicious and unfounded”.

Presiding judge Dr Al Mutawa also cancelled the deportation order. The woman claimed that she cried and begged the suspect not to molest her before she resisted him and ran out.

A police corporal said the manager visited the police station when asked to do so following the woman’s complaint.

“He claimed during questioning that he had hired the woman for freelance translation work at his office … that day, the woman wanted to leave although she had not completed her translation job, he alleged. The suspect strongly denied the woman’s claims and denied groping or hugging her,” the corporal said.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.