Man jailed for groping female jogger in Al Khawaneej park

Victim’s cousin says defendant jumped over park fence and disappeared after act

Legal and Court Correspondent

ABangladeshi man has been jailed for three months for groping a female jogger in Al Khawaneej.

On Thursday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the man, who works as a domestic servant, of groping the Emirati jogger’s top and bottom while she was with her cousin at the park in July.

Presiding judge Habib Awad said the accused, who pleaded not guilty, will be deported following the completion of his punishment.

The jogger was exercising, when the defendant suddenly popped up in front of her and groped her twice.

The accused instantly ran away, jumped over the fence of the park and disappeared.

The woman testified to prosecutors that she ran out of the park in an attempt to find the culprit, stop him and report the matter to the police.

“When I reached the street, he had vanished. I stopped a driver and told him what had happened: the latter asked me to ride with him in his car to comb the vicinity and search for the defendant. We found the accused in the neighbourhood and restrained him, until the police came and apprehended him,” she said.

Her cousin told prosecutors that the incident happened at 9.45pm that day. “I was ahead of her on the jogging track when it happened. My cousin told me that the accused groped her before he disappeared. I only saw him running away and jumping over the fence,” she said.

The ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.