Dubai, January 21: The Court of First Instance acquitted on Wednesday a private teacher of the charge of molesting four school girls whose ages range from 7 to 11.
The 43-year-old suspect was accused of molesting the little schoolgirls under threat of chopping them up and throwing them to dogs if they informed their parents about his doings.
He earlier pleaded not guilty to the molestation and threat charges when he appeared in the Court of First Instance, presided by Judge Fahmi Mounir Fahmi.
Defence lawyer Badr Abdullah argued in the court that the accusation filed by the girls’ mother — a 32-year-old Emirati national — was malicious and fabricated. He said that the mother owed his client money for the teaching sessions. Abdullah also said that there was contradiction between the allegations of the mother and the technical evidence. The counsel claimed that the forensic physician dismissed in her report that the girl, believed to have been abused the most, was sexually abused. Abdullah based his arguments on article 135 of the Penal Procedure Law. “One should not be convicted on the basis of a minor’s statement which was given without oath.
That statement should be sustained by an independent proof”. The defendant has been in provisional detention.
The husband of the complainant — a 30-year-old Palestinian national — told the prosecutor that his daughter, aged 7, informed him that she was molested by her teacher. He said that the defendant had been teaching his daughters private sessions for three years.
–Agencies–