Salesman 'groped and punched' flight attendant at Dubai club

DUBAI // A salesman is accused of groping a flight attendant at a nightclub before punching her, a court has heard.

At Dubai Criminal Court, Tunisian AA, 26, denied touching the Serbian woman's buttocks and then hitting her at Amika nightclub in Bur Dubai on October 26.

Flight attendant EZ, 32, testified that she was at the nightclub with her friend, M, when the defendant approached them and started dancing with them.

"We tried to avoid him but, in vain, so we asked more than one time to stay away from us," said EZ.

The woman added that about 10 minutes after they asked the salesman to stay away from them, she felt someone touching her from behind.

She turned her head and saw him. "I figured it was him so I pushed him away and, at that moment, he punched me on the forehead," she said.

Records state that EZ then started crying and screaming. She told security guards, who caught the man and called police.

HA, an Egyptian civil engineer, testified that he heard the woman screaming and, when he looked at her, he saw her grabbing the defendant's shirt and screaming at him. "Then the club's owner took the man into the kitchen until police arrived," said the witness.

AA denied a charge of sexual assault and awaits a verdict on December 30.

salamir@thenational.ae