UAE | Crime

Suspect pleads not guilty to Dubai rape and coercion

A Jordanian suspect has denied raping a Saudi national who he claimed agreed to go clubbing with him two days after they met in Dubai.

  • By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
  • Published: 22:50 November 8, 2008
  • Gulf News

Dubai: A Jordanian suspect has denied raping a Saudi national who he claimed agreed to go clubbing with him two days after they met in Dubai.

The defendant also denied threatening the plaintiff with a knife.

Records said the 42-year-old woman agreed to accompany the 50-year-old suspect, a supervisor, to his flat at International City, where the alleged incident happened, after he told her he needed to change his clothes.

An Egyptian woman who heard the plaintiff crying outside the suspect's flat had earlier testified that the suspect offered money to the plaintiff threatening her not to take the matter to the police.

The suspect, A.I., pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Saturday and argued before Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir: "I didn't rape or threaten her with a knife. It all happened consensually."

The Public Prosecution charged A.I. with forcing the woman into his bedroom and having sex with her at knifepoint.

He was also charged with threatening her in a bid to hush up the matter.

The plaintiff claimed that she was waiting for a taxi when the suspect offered to drive her home.

"I gave him my contact number and he phoned me two days later and suggested that we go out for lunch. I agreed to go dancing with him but he took me to his flat on the pretext of changing his clothes. He drank three cans of beer and insisted that I drink as well. After some time, he started acting strangely and forced himself on me despite my entreaties that we were only friends."

An Emirati policeman testified that the Egyptian neighbour informed the police about what happened after she heard the plaintiff crying outside the suspect's flat. A.I. turned himself in after the incident.

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