Painter in Dubai accused of kissing 11-year-old girl in lift

A Pakistani man has been placed in detention after the parents of an 11-year-old Asian girl accused him of molesting their daughter in the lift of their building.

Dubai prosecutors referred the 32-year-old man, a building painter, to trial on the charge of kissing the girl multiple times on June 29.

They are seeking the most strict legal penalty against him. A complaint against him was lodged at Naif police station.

He denied the charge at the Court of First Instance. However, during the public prosecution investigation, he admitted he kissed the girl twice in the residential lift.

He confessed he followed the victim when he spotted her with her sister outside the building at 1.40pm. He recounted that he kissed the victim twice on her lips and patted on her sister's head. He went to the fourth floor when the girls reached the third. He used the emergency stairs on his way down.

Surveillance cameras at the building showed the man following the two girls from the entrance to the lift and walking inside with them.

The girl identified him among other suspects at the police station.

A ruling will be issued on September 24.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

Marie Nammour

Originally from Lebanon, Marie has been covering the Dubai Courts and the Public Prosecution, immigration and labour issues often, Lebanese community-related affairs and the Dubai International Film Festival. A graduate from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Jounieh, a city to the north of Beirut, Marie worked as an in-house reporter, covering international affairs for the LBCI and the LBC Sat (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International), a leading TV station back home and a legal translator for Sagesse, a renowned law college in the heart of the Lebanese capital. Marie speaks fluently Arabic, French, English and Spanish. She is fond of travelling, psychology, learning more and of the French literature.