Dubai: A man has been jailed for three months on charges of molesting his wife’s friend and breaching her privacy by his act of taking a video of her leaving a salon while simultaneously recording offensive comments, a court heard on Sunday.
The wife and her friend were leaving a beauty salon when the 49-year-old husband snuck up behind them in October 2017.
As the women approached their car, the man grabbed his wife’s friend by her shoulder and stopped them. When the women turned back, they saw the Emirati man taking a video of the Moroccan friend on his mobile phone and making offensive comments while recording. When the Moroccan told the man that she would call the police, the latter instantly stopped filming and told her that he had deleted the video.
The Moroccan reported the matter to police and said she felt offended by the defendant’s remarks: “look what type of people are accompanying her [his Yemeni wife].”
On Sunday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of molesting his wife’s friend and breaching her privacy when he filmed her without her consent.
However, presiding judge Mohammad Jamal acquitted the man of making offensive remarks to the victim.
The accused pleaded not guilty and denied the accusations in court.
When asked in court if he had uttered the offensive comments, the defendant contended: “I did not. I was speaking to my wife and not to the victim, who is my wife’s friend.”
The victim said the accused grabbed her by the shoulder after she had left the salon with her friend. “He had his phone on video mode and he was filming. He commented while filming and said ‘what type of people is that!’ … he also commented ‘look what type of people are accompanying her’. The defendant is my friend’s husband and they have a divorce case in Dubai Courts. I felt embarrassed and offended by his remarks. Then I reported the matter to police although he had deleted the video,” she testified.
Sunday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
