Pakistani physician Muhammad Asif Chaudhry was acquitted of all charges of inappropritae contact with a school age girl travelling alone on an American Airlines flight from New York City to Chicago.
Both the physician, 57, and the school-aged girl took the stand during the two-day bench trial in Chicago, where Chaudhry pleaded “not guilty” and testified that any contact there might have been inadvertent.
Prosecutors however, alleged Chaudhry moved from his assigned seat to one near the girl – who hails from Iowa, and was traveling on the airline’s unaccompanied-minor program. The minor allegedly texted her mother from the plane, claiming that a man had touched her, but that she couldn’t move because the seat belt light was on.
If convicted, Chaudhry would have seen 2 sentences, each carrying a maximum of two years in prison. Chaudhry, who had been in the US to visit acquaintances in Oklahoma, wasn’t jailed while awaiting trial but was required to hand over his passport after being charged earlier this year.
But in her decision on Monday, US District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said that prosecutors had failed to prove their case. Chaudhry is now looking forward to returning home and resuming his life in Pakistan, according to his defence team.
“He’s overwhelmingly relieved,” his lawyer, Andrea Gambino said. Prosecutors’ spokesman Joseph Fitzpatrick declined comment Tuesday on the case.
