Cabbie jailed for sexually harassing maid

dubai — A taxi driver has been sentenced to six months in jail for sexually harassing a housemaid during a trip. The Dubai Court of First Instance found the 43-yearold Pakistani driver guilty of a molestation charge and ordered his deportation after completing his jail term.

He was accused of groping and touching the woman who was then sitting in the front seat of his taxi. The maid, a 29-year-old Filipina, said that she had been in Dubai for two weeks when the incident took place on December 3 last year.

“A taxi picked me up from outside my sponsor’s house in Umm Suqeim,” she said. She claimed that two minutes into the trip, the defendant began touching her inappropriately. “He was driving with his left hand while touching me with the other. I was shocked and scared.”

His harassment continued even as he stopped at a traffic light. She said that the car was tinted and

He was driving with his left hand while touching me with the other. I was shocked and scared.” The victim

centrally locked. She could not even open a window.

In the few minutes before he dropped her at her destination, he quickly arranged his clothes.

The maid’s sponsor, a 42-yearold Canadian working as an economic consultant, said he was with his family at a friend’s house when he ordered a taxi online to bring his maid to where they were in Al Barsha. “I had to drive my car to pick her up as the taxi driver could not reach the location. But I was surprised to see her crying when she stepped off the taxi about 25 minutes later.”

After hearing from her about the driver’s behaviour, the sponsor confronted him and told him he would report him to the taxi company. “But he just denied the accusation and sped off,” the sponsor told the prosecutor. The court ruling may be appealed.

mary@khaleejtimes.com