DUBAI // A 21-year-old soldier has had his sentence of one year in jail for stalking and harassing a woman he met on BlackBerry Messenger upheld by Dubai Court of Appeal.
After several months of chatting on BBM with a 23-year-old Emirati bank employee, M M began telling the woman that he loved her and wanted to marry her, the Criminal Court heard last June.
“I turned him down because much of his behaviour was unacceptable to me,” said the Emirati woman. After the rejection, she said he began following her to work and stalking her.
On the afternoon of April 4 last year, as she was leaving her office and walking towards her car, she saw the Emirati soldier following her.
“This was not the first time. I have seen him before, sitting in his car and chasing me around,” she said.
The soldier walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She told him not to touch her but he followed her to her car, insulting her family and brothers on the way.
When she got into her vehicle, he tried to stop her from driving away by sticking his body through the car’s open window.
“I panicked and hit two parked cars,” she said.
After the crash, she stopped her car and called police. She received two fines from police for the crash.
M M denied charges of sexually assaulting the woman by touching her shoulder and harassing her but was convicted and sentenced to a year in jail, a term that was upheld on Thursday.
salamir@thenational.ae