KEY POINTS:
A New Zealand woman will be deported after she serves six months' jail for sexually molesting a Dubai policewoman while drunk.
Stuff website reported today the Dubai Court of First Instance this week found the 41-year-old woman guilty of "hugging and kissing the policewoman and touching her private body parts".
According to the Gulf News she expressed deep regret for "whatever wrong" she committed on the night of the incident and attributed her actions to being drunk.
In June the woman appeared in the court where she pleaded guilty to consuming liquor, but denied sexually harassing the officer.
The officer told the court she had been called to a Dubai hotel on March 28 where the woman was "causing trouble".
The woman was "drunk and causing a ruckus," and initially refused to get into the police van.
At first she had refused to join a minibus of detainees, but after calming down she took the policewoman's hand and hugged her, the court was told.
Once on the bus, the woman started "talking indecently".
At the station, the officer went with the New Zealander to the bathroom, where she allegedly undressed and verbally harassed the officer.
A policeman who had been on patrol at the time told the court that the defendant had been very drunk and was touching the female officer all the time.
The woman also rubbed her shoe on the policewoman's body, he said.
This week, presiding Judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm sentenced the woman to six months' prison and ordered that she be deported after serving her punishment.
Alcohol is tolerated in the United Arab Emirates, but being drunk in public is a crime and it is illegal to drink in public.
The New Zealand consul-general in Dubai provided assistance during the case.
- NZPA
