A 50-year-old man from the United States has been sentenced to nearly two years in jail for inappropriately touching a sleeping passenger on an airplane.
Mohammad Jawad Ansari was convicted of reaching his hand onto the inner thigh of a woman who was asleep in the middle seat during a flight from Cleveland to Los Angeles in February 2020.
The victim, who was wearing a dress, woke up and removed Ansari’s hand before reporting the assault to cabin crew, according to officials.
Despite denying the charge of abusive sexual contact, Ansari was found guilty after a four-day trial in May, as announced by the Department of Justice.
Ansari’s “groping left (his victim) shocked and afraid, and witnesses testified that she sobbed for the remainder of the flight,” a prosecutor told a court in Los Angeles.
On flights, the victim “now struggles to fall asleep because she is constantly concerned about ‘what if someone touches me.’”
US District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha jailed Ansari for 21 months and ordered him to pay over $40,000.
