Dubai: A lawyer argued in court on Sunday that prosecutors failed to present substantial evidence against his client and corroborate the charge that he molested a housewife outside a branch of the Starbucks cafe chain.
The 33-year-old Saudi visitor pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance in an earlier hearing and firmly denied accusations that he followed the housewife to an escalator and forcibly hugged her after she had left the Starbucks branch at a residential tower at Dubai Downtown in February 2017.
“Prosecutors failed to produce any substantial or materialistic evidence against my client … they could not corroborate their accusation that was only based only the housewife’s inconsistent and unfounded statement. Meanwhile, police spent nearly one year trying to get hold of any CCTV footage in the place where the alleged incident happened … and they could not find any surveillance footage. This whole case was based on the woman’s fabricated claims,” argued lawyer Yousuf Al Beloushi, of Al Beloushi and Al Marashda Advocates and Legal Consultants, in courtroom three on Sunday.
The 36-year-old housewife, from Comoros Island, alleged that she bought herself a coffee from Starbucks and, while standing at the top of the escalator wanting to head down to the parking lot, the 33-year-old visitor grabbed her by the waist, rubbed his body against hers and groped her bottom before he quickly fled the scene.
“Police confirmed that they could not obtain any photos from the alleged crime scene as there were no surveillance cameras installed at the spot where the purported incident happened. On the other hand, the woman claimed that when my client allegedly groped her, she was speaking to her husband over the phone … where is the husband? Why didn’t he show up and testify that he heard his wife’s reaction when she was allegedly groped? The woman’s claims were groundless. When she complained to the police, she alleged that the suspect gave her his name and number … why did she fail to provide the police with those details if what she said was true?” Al Beloushi asked while presenting his arguments before presiding judge Mohammad Jamal.
The housewife alleged that the visitor molested her once she had left the cafe and headed to the escalator wanting to go to her car at 2.30pm.
A police corporal testified to prosecutor: “A police patrol was dispatched to Dubai Downtown … the claimant alleged that once she was atop the escalator, the suspect glued his body to hers and touched her indecently. He ran away once she yelled at him.”
Lawyer Al Beloushi urged the court to dismiss the housewife’s allegations since they were baseless and to acquit his client.
A ruling will be heard on July 31.
