Dubai: Prosecutors lost their appeal against a woman who was acquitted of working in the sex industry. She was initially charged with prostitution in a case lodged before a lower court after she claimed a man had raped her.
The 40-year-old Egyptian woman was reportedly said to have picked up two men from the street and allowed them into her flat where she convinced them to have sex with her for Dh150 in December.
In May, the Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the woman, who had pleaded not guilty, due to lack of sufficient evidence.
Prosecutors appealed the primary judgement and sought to have the woman’s acquittal overturned and have her jailed by the Appeal Court.
When she entered her plea, the woman told the court that she had been raped and that she did not have paid sex with the men.
“I did not do so … God forbid,” she told the court.
The appeal court rejected prosecutors’ appeal and upheld the woman’s acquittal.
A police lieutenant had claimed that the woman initially reported to Dubai Police’s Operations Room that an African man broke into her flat and raped her.
“On checking her flat’s broken door, the woman said the African broke into her flat. The door’s lock was apparently broken from inside. We suspected the woman’s claims about her being raped. The building’s surveillance cameras clearly showed her walking two men into her flat. The woman initially claimed that the first man was asking her about a person who lived in the building.
“Then she willingly admitted that she had stopped a Saudi man in the street and convinced him to go up to her place and have sex with her for Dh150. The Egyptian gave her statement verbally … however when we asked her to sign on the written confession, she refused. She retracted her statement,” the lieutenant claimed.
Meanwhile in her defence before the appellate court, the Egyptian woman firmly denied picking up any man at 10.30pm from the street or having paid sex with anyone.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 17 days.
