DUBAI – A Scottish electrician has been sentenced to three months in prison in the United Arab Emirates for touching a man’s hip in a bar.
Jamie Harron, from Stirling, Scotland, was arrested in July over the incident in which he said he put his hand on businessman Emad Tabaza’s hip to avoid spilling a drink in a crowded Dubai bar.
The 27-year-old electrician had been working in Afghanistan and was on a two-day stopover in the UAE at the time.
His accuser dropped the complaint, but local prosecutors decided to proceed with the case, the Mail Online reported.
After his arrest for public indecency Mr. Harron lost his job and was told he could have faced up to three years in jail.
Campaign group Detained in Dubai (DiD) said he was sentenced to three months imprisonment at court on Sunday but lawyers plan to appeal.
He is not currently in custody, but did not appear in court. His lawyer represented him at the sentencing and they have two weeks to appeal the decision.
Mr. Harron has already been sentenced in absentia to 30 days in prison for failing to appear at a court hearing for making a rude gesture and drinking alcohol during the same July incident.
He was initially jailed for five days and then released on bail with his passport confiscated.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “We have been in contact with a British man following his arrest in Dubai in July. We are providing consular assistance.”
