Dubai worker denies sex attack on woman in lift

Pakistani says he only offered her his number to see if she wanted Quran lessons but woman claims he touched her breast.

DUBAI // A 33-year-old worker denied molesting a student while she was getting into the lift in her apartment block, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Monday.

“I teach Quran and I only handed her my number, after which she slapped me and screamed at me, but I didn’t touch her,” the Pakistani defendant said.

Prosecutors said that on March 28, the Indian woman, 20, was about to get into the lift to go to her apartment, in Al Nahda, when the accused allegedly attacked her from behind, wrapping one arm around her neck while the other touched her breast.

“He twisted my right arm and strangled me then touched my breast and shoulder. I screamed loudly and pushed him away from me.

“My father and other tenants responded to my screams and restrained the defendant until police arrived,” said the woman, who claimed never to have seen the man before.

A policeman said: “He admitted to me during questioning that he hoped to get the woman to have sex with him, if she wanted, but then changed his words and said that he was handing her his number in case she needed Quran lessons.”

The defendant awaits a verdict on May 25.