UAE | Crime
Student victim's obesity cited to deny rape charge
Prosecutors had charged F.A. with tricking the college student, M.J.
- By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:00 April 21, 2010
Dubai: A lawyer ruled out the possibility of his client raping a female student thrice his size when he presented his defence in court on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old Emirati policeman, F.A., could not have possibly raped his compatriot student, who is very fat and triple the suspect's size, between the passenger's and driver's seat of his saloon car, advocate Yousuf Hammad told the Dubai Court of First Instance.
"My client is very slim and she is very fat… it would have been impossible and unimaginable for F.A. to have raped her the way she described it to prosecutors and policemen. The claimant gave an inconsistent and contradicting statement. She alleged that he raped her between the two seats, and at the passenger's seat and at the rear seat," Hammad argued before Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout.
Prosecutors had charged F.A. with tricking the college student, M.J., into joining him for a drive and raping her in an unlit and deserted spot in Muhaisnah.
F.A. earlier denied the charges of kidnap under threat of 20-year-old M.J. and raping and sexually assaulting her. Prosecutors asked the court to punish him with a death sentence.
"I am not guilty. I did not kidnap or rape her…it was consensual," contended F.A.
Hammad claimed in his defence that this is a case of consensual sex and ruled out any rape or sexual molestation.
"The claimant exchanged her contact details with the suspect and they started talking… on the day of the incident, she willingly joined him in his car. She also told her sister that she was going to grab a dinner meal. My client could not have raped her, because the way she was dressed showed that she was willing to have consensual sex with F.A.," said Hammad.
Prosecution records said F.A. threatened to kill M.J. if she did not drive her car behind his car. Under duress and in fear of being killed, she drove behind him until they stopped in front of Al Qusais police station where she parked her car and drove with him, according to the charges.
"She testified that someone named Atiq knocked on the car window while F.A. was raping her. Why didn't she cry out for help? Why didn't she ask Atiq for assistance? My client's entire behaviour was consensual," contended Hammad.
The student's civil right advocate Hiba Ahli told the presiding judge that her client is seeking Dh20,000 in temporary compensation.
Hammad asked the court to pronounce F.A.'s innocence or reject the civil lawsuit and refer it to the Public Prosecution for a reinvestigation in a "consensual sex case" and not rape. M.J. claimed to prosecutors that she had known F.A. since childhood.
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