(Geneva) A New York State man is asking a Swiss court to reinstate an assault conviction on a brother of the United Arab Emirates’ ruler who last year was found guilty of beating the man with belt in a Geneva hotel bar when he spurned the sheik’s sexual advances.

At his trial last year, the court heard the attack began when Orsi, originally from Rochester, New York, declined a bottle of champagne the sheik offered him in August 2003.

Orsi claimed that after he refused the champagne, the sheik – whom he never before had met – came up behind him, jostled his glasses, sat in his lap and tried to kiss and fondle him. When Orsi protested, the assault began, he said.

Two former hotel employees and a security officer testified that they had seen the sheik assaulting Orsi.

The sheik said the men got into a heated argument after he overheard someone call him gay and acknowledged that he pulled his belt from his trousers, but insisted he never struck Orsi.

The sheik was convicted of inflicting “bodily harm with the use of a dangerous object” and imposed a suspended fine of 540,000 francs ($530,000), which would be payable in the event of another infraction in Switzerland during the next three years.

The sheik appealed and last month an appeals court in Geneva overturned the verdict, saying in its ruling a belt could not be considered a dangerous object.

Through his attorney, Orsi said he will appeal to the Swiss Supreme Court to have the original sentence reinstated.

Orsi’s injuries and post-traumatic shock from the beating left him incapable of working.

A lawyer for the sheik said that Orsi’s accusations are “false” and purely motivated by his desire to gain money from the sheik.

The sheik is a brother of Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who was appointed president of the United Arab Emirates in 2004 after the death of their father, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.