Dubai: An off-duty policeman has been given a suspended imprisonment in the case of having sex with a woman, who claimed that he had raped her and later became his wife.
The 28-year-old man was reported to have lured the Emirati woman to his car and had sex with her in 2016.
Agreeing to see him on the pretext of discussing marriage procedures, the woman rode with the man in his car until he parked it between two villas and had sex with her.
When the woman reported the matter to the police, she alleged that she had been raped.
In October, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 28-year-old defendant of having consensual sex with the woman, after the rape charge was modified.
Suspended jail sentence
The defendant was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence after he had pleaded not guilty and presented in the court a copy of his marriage certificate confirming that the woman is his wife.
Prosecutors appealed the primary judgement and asked the Appeal Court to overturn the defendant’s punishment and stiffen his jail term.
Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm dismissed the prosecutors’ appeal and upheld the six-month suspended jail term.
The policeman had met the woman at the Dubai International Airport where they both worked.
The defendant and the woman became friends and he reportedly told her he wanted to marry her, said records.
The couple communicated over the phone for six months before the policeman stopped talking to her. After some time, the defendant resumed communications with the woman and talked her into sitting in his car to discuss their marriage.
The woman went to the parking lot where they had agreed to meet and sat in his car.
The defendant drove around the city, parked his vehicle between some villas and then jumped onto her seat and had sex with her.
Shortly after the defendant dropped the woman back to her car, she drove to the nearest police station to report that she had been raped.
The woman said she met the defendant when he once helped her solve an issue pertaining to a trip that she had in 2016.
“We communicated over the phone. I informed him that I had been married before. We chatted for six months before he stopped talking to her for unknown reasons. In March 2017, he resumed communication … he told me he still wanted to marry me. When I met him to discuss the marriage details, he raped me in his car. I shouted and cried for help but to no avail. I do not know if anybody heard me or saw us. Later I reported the matter to the police … but then I waived my complaint against him because I wanted to be his wife and we got married,” she said.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court.
