Dubai: Seven prisoners have been accused of sneaking into their inmate’s cell at 3am and gang-raping him in Dubai Central Jail.
The seven prisoners, six Emiratis and one from Comoros Islands, raped the 24-year-old Emirati inmate on two different occasions.
Following the first alleged gang-rape, the inmate headed to the jail’s management to report that he had been raped but backed down at the last minute, said records.
Sometime later, the second group of prisoners walked into the cell and gang-raped him; this time he complained to the management.
Prosecutors charged the seven prisoners of gang-raping the 24 year old.
Six of the seven suspects showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.
One of the suspects told presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi that the inmate had waived his complaint and dropped his case against his rapists.
The seven suspects are aged between 19 and 22.
The 24-year-old testified to prosecutors that one night he was sleeping when a group of four went into his cell and woke him up.
“They gave me a choice to be beaten or allow them to have sex with me … I felt scared and allowed them to have sex with me. I went to complain but then I decided not to because I was afraid that the suspects might beat me. Two days later three more suspects came and did the same … then I reported the matter to the jail’s management,” he told prosecutors.
A 19-year-old suspect was cited as admitting to prosecutors that he had consensual sex with the inmate in his cell.
Al Shamsi said the court will appoint a lawyer to defend the suspects when it reconvenes on March 29.
