Los Angeles:
An American man who groped a sleeping passenger on a plane was jailed for almost two years on Thursday.
Mohammad Jawad Ansari, 50, placed his hand on a woman’s inner thigh as she slept in the middle seat of a flight from Cleveland to Los Angeles in February 2020.
The victim, who was wearing a dress, woke up and pushed Ansari’s hand away before leaving her seat and telling cabin crew about the attack, officials said.
Ansari, who had denied charges of abusive sexual contact, was found guilty in May after a four-day trial, the Justice Department said.
Ansari’s groping left (his victim) shocked and scared, and witnesses said she cried for the rest of the flight,” a prosecutor told the Los Angeles court.
On flights, the victim “now has trouble falling asleep because she constantly worries about ‘what if someone touches me’.”
U.S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha jailed Ansari for 21 months and ordered him to pay more than $40,000 in restitution.
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