Driver loses appeal in rape case

Dubai: A driver has lost his appeal, and will spend five years behind prison bars, for raping a woman then filming her naked in a production house in Al Qouz.

The 28-year-old Pakistani defendant was said to have confined the 39-year-old Filipina woman inside the company’s premises then he forcibly removed her clothes and raped her.

Records said the Filipina went with her friend, who recommended that the defendant, A.S., could lend her money to pay for her son’s college tuition in the Philippines.

The Dubai Appeal Court upheld S.A.’s conviction and confirmed his five-year imprisonment.

Presiding judge Eisa Mohammad Al Sharif said the accused will be deported following the completion of his jail term.

The defendant pleaded not guilty and denied raping the woman when he defended himself before the appellate court. In his defence argument, the accused claimed that they had consensual sex and that the Filipina agreed to have sex with for money. The defendant was further incriminated of breaching the woman’s modesty and molesting her by filming her naked.

The Dubai Court of First Instance earlier acquitted the woman’s friend, a 26-year-old Pakistani, M.Z., of conspiring against her.

M.Z. claimed that he drove the woman to the company to borrow money from the accused.

The Filipina testified: “I asked M.Z. to lend me money… he said he would take me to his friend [A.S.] for that purpose. We went to the production company and met A.S., who claimed that he would report the police that I entered without permission. M.Z. suggested that I give him my ATM card or money or he would do something to me… A.S. ordered M.Z. to leave the room before he jumped on me and raped me. I couldn’t resist because I was petrified.” The woman and her countrywoman reported the police. The appellate judgment remains subject to appeal within 13 days.