Knifepoint rapist jailed

Dubai: A man has been sentenced to a year in jail after being found guilty of raping a woman at knifepoint in his International City flat.

The Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday sentenced the 50-year-old Jordanian supervisor, A.E., to a year in jail followed by deportation.

The 42-year-old Saudi victim said she had agreed to go into the man's flat after he said he wanted to get changed before their night out together. She said he drank three cans of beer and insisted she drink as well.

"After some time he started acting strangely and forced himself on me despite my entreaties that we were only friends," she said.

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

The victim failed to testify in court as records said she had left the country.

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

Due to the circumstances of the incident, the three-judge panel granted the accused a lenient sentence in the initial verdict, which is still subject to appeal within 15 days.

Pretext

"I didn't rape or threaten her with a knife... it happened consensually," A.E. told Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir when he first appeared in court.

The accused claimed earlier that the woman had agreed to go clubbing with him two days after they met in Dubai.

The plaintiff claimed that she was waiting for a taxi when A.E. 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."