Dubai: Two jobless men, who kidnapped a housemaid and raped her in a minibus in 2013, won their appeals and had their life imprisonment sentences reduced to 10 years in jail.
The Pakistani men, 36-year-old N.M. and 28-year-old I.K., lured the 29-year-old Filipina and her Indian boyfriend to get into the vehicle outside Al Safa Park in November 2013.
Then they kicked out the boyfriend and had forced sex with the woman in the minibus.
In April, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed N.M. and I.K. for life for kidnapping and raping the Filipina and impersonating police personnel and stealing the woman’s Dh660, a camera and mobile phone.
The duo appealed their life sentences and sought a reduced punishment when they showed up at the Dubai Appeal Court, before whom they contended that they had paid sex with the Filipina.
They denied posing as policemen, kidnapping and raping the Filipina and contended that they had consensual sex.
Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm overturned the primary ruling [life sentence] and reduced it to ten years in jail on grounds of leniency.
“The duo have been acquitted of posing as policemen. The defendants will be deported after serving their jail terms,” said presiding judge Bin Sarm.
The Filipina told the court that the incident happened around 3pm after she attended a party in Al Riqqa.
“My boyfriend called after the party and asked to see me … I met him as I thought that he wanted to return the Dh1,500 that he owed me. We went to Al Safa Park by taxi. We spotted the convicts watching us but we did not pay much attention to them. When we left the park at 5.30pm, the duo stopped us outside the gate. They claimed to be policemen and asked us what we had been doing at the park. We begged them not to take us to the police station when they threatened to do so. They lured us to a minibus … they drove for a while before they took our mobile phones and wallets. They had a heated argument with my boyfriend before they kicked him out. N.M. said they would take me to the police station … I begged him not to. He came and touched me. Then he asked me to please him … I understood his sexual advances. I was coerced to allow him to have sex with me in order not to be taken to the police station. I.K. did the same,” she said.
The 29-year-old further testified that she returned to her sponsor’s house where her Indian boyfriend visited her to check what had happened.
The victim identified the defendants at the police line up after their arrest.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.
