Jail term for law worker who molested woman

DUBAI // A man working for a law firm has been sentenced to three years in jail for sexually assaulting the wife of one of his company’s clients.

Dubai Criminal Court yesterday sentenced the 39-year-old Egyptian defendant in his absence to three years in jail for the attack on the woman, who had approached the firm after her husband was detained for a bounced cheque.

The defendant had been told to follow up on the case and arrange for her to visit her husband in detention, she said. She told prosecutors the man started flirting with her and told her she was beautiful.

He often told her to live her life and not waste it waiting for her jailed husband, the victim said.

“I asked him to stop and reminded him I was a married woman, but he didn’t and kept leaving gifts for me and for my children at my doorstep,” the 32-year-old said.

She said he often told her he had problems with his wife, and asked her for a date on Valentine’s Day. She changed her phone number, but he started calling her landline. The woman threatened to call police, but he did not stop, and when her husband was released from prison, she did not tell him because she feared further problems.

On February 24, 2014, the doorbell rang at her home in Mirdif.

“I thought it was one of my kids because they were in the garden playing,” she said. “When I opened up, it was him. He pushed me inside and started assaulting me.” Records show he touched and hugged the woman against her will. She screamed and resisted. The woman said she was initially too scared to tell authorities or her husband but went to police three months later when the man failed to stop harassing her.