Dubai: A lawyer divulged in court on Wednesday that some WhatsApp cozy images confirm that his client was having a year-long romantic affair with a Frenchwoman who claimed she was raped.

The 25-year-old Emirati suspect, S.S., denies the charge of luring the 22-year-old woman visitor to his car and then coercing her to have sex with him in August.

“My client’s seized mobile phone contains cozy images on WhatsApp of him and the woman in compromising situations that clearly explains the intimacy of the relationship they had. On the day of the incident S.S. had consensual sex with her… they had been having a year-long love affair,” lawyer Hashem Malek Al Beloushi said before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

Prosecutors are seeking the toughest punishment applicable against S.S., who denies the accusation of raping the Frenchwoman in his car after beating and threatening to kill her and leave her body in the desert.

“She claimed that she was a virgin… but forensic examiners proved her wrong. She also claimed that my client raped her at knifepoint, but not a single knife cut or scratch was found on her body when she was examined. The claimant gave a statement that was full of lies and contradictions,” argued Al Beloushi.

The Frenchwoman [who hails from an Arab country] claimed before the court that she did not know Arabic while her police statement was registered in Arabic, the lawyer pointed out.

The 22-year-old testified to prosecutors that she became acquainted with the suspect in 2013 before she met him again in August 2014.

“He picked me up from Nad Al Sheba and took a desert route, stopping in the middle of nowhere. I rejected his sexual advances and begged him to let me go. He assaulted me and threatened to kill me if I did not surrender myself… he raped me at knifepoint. He threatened to kill me if I told anyone what had happened,” she claimed.

According to reports, after the Emirati dropped the Frenchwoman to her car, she drove towards Jumeirah and called the police.

“Her statement was full of fabrications and contradictions. She dated my client more than seven times. She claimed that she had never had sex with S.S. Meanwhile a defence witness countered her allegations and testified that he saw them together one night. My client got married in March and we are seeking to acquit him of rape or having his rape charges modified to consensual sex. We ask the court to hand him a lenient sentence,” concluded Al Beloushi.

A ruling will be heard on April 19.