DUBAI // A security guard who asked a woman to have sex with him in return for Dh1,000 has been sentenced to three months in prison.
The Criminal Court found AA, 26, from Egypt, guilty of sexual assault despite his protestations that he could not afford such an amount as his monthly salary was "just Dh800".
He grabbed a Brazilian woman as she headed home from the Jumeirah Village on September 20 and propositioned her, but the terrified woman shook him off, ran away, and informed a different security guard of what had happened.
Prosecutors said he confessed during interrogations, but he denied the charge in court.
He will be deported after serving his prison term.
salamir@thenational.ae
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.