Police officer cleared of sexual assault, Dubai court rules

A policeman accused of sexually assaulting a woman and threatening to ruin her life if she told anyone was today acquitted by the Misdemeanour Court.

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DUBAI // A policeman accused of sexually assaulting a woman and threatening to ruin her life if she told anyone was today acquitted by the Misdemeanour Court.

The 47-year-old Emirati AF was cleared of a charge of threatening the Filipina YR after the woman withdrew the allegation. The court had not pursued the molestation charge due to lack of proof.

The policeman met the woman in November 2011 during an inspection at the airport when he found her dozing off on the reception desk.

He told the court he decided to recruit her as an inside informant and gave her his mobile phone number. After this she called him persistently and asked him out to dinner with her friend.

Following the dinner he dropped the two women off at the hotel in Sharjah where they lived, at which point the woman asked him to give her a BlackBerry.

He booked a room at the hotel as he was experiencing family problems, but was surprised when five days later police called him and said the woman had accused him of sexual assault.

She claimed he had invited her and her friend to his hotel room and sexually assaulted her in front of her friend - a claim that was repeated by her friend RA.

The pair - who were both employed at Dubai airport - claimed that he warned them that he was a high-ranking officer at the airport and would deport them if they said anything.

salamir@thenational.ae