DUBAI // A man waved a knife at two six-year-olds to scare them into not telling anyone that he had tried to molest one of them.
Indian A A, 26, was on Monday found guilty by the Dubai Criminal Court of sexually assaulting a girl and issuing threats to her and a boy on December 14 last year. He was sentenced to three months in prison.
Records show that the children had just returned from school about 2pm and were greeted by their mothers, who started talking as the children played in the corridor.
Before the mothers realised, the children had disappeared around the corner.
The girl said the defendant tried to kiss her on the lips but missed when she lifted her head up. Her friend tried to protect her and stood in front of the defendant.
“He then got angry and pulled out a knife on us,” said the girl.
The girl’s Indian mother, A S, 32, said: “Five minutes after they started playing, he and my daughter came running and he told me someone pulled out a knife at them.
“My daughter was so scared and said someone tried to kiss her. She was wiping her mouth and saying ‘dirty, dirty’.”
The mother and a security guard found the defendant and asked him about the incident.
“He said he did nothing, but he was scared,” A S said.
The defendant told the court he was earning a living from collecting used cartons at the time.
“While I was busy collecting cartons, the children came and started tearing boxes into pieces,” he said. “I just bent and told the girl to stay away.
“When another kid refused to stop tearing the cartons, I held the knife to scare them.”
He said he had no intention to hurt or assault the children.
“They were damaging my work, Your Honour. I just wanted to scare them off, but I never hurt or kissed the girl and her friend,” he said.
He will be deported after serving his term.
salamir@thenational.ae
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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