Dubai: Seven prisoners lost their appeals and will serve different jail terms for sneaking into another inmate’s cell at 3am and gang-raping him twice in Dubai Central Jail.
The seven prisoners — six Emiratis and one from Comoros Islands — gang-raped the 24-year-old Emirati inmate on two different days in January 2016.
Following the first gang-rape, the inmate went to the jail’s management to report that he had been raped but backed out in the last minute.
Afterwards, the second group of prisoners walked into his cell and gang-raped him. This time he complained to the management.
In May, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the first batch of rapists for three years each in jail and the second batch of rapists were jailed for one year each.
The defendants appealed their primary judgement before the Appeal Court and sought to be acquitted.
One of the defendants argued in court that the 24-year-old complainant had waived his complaint and dropped the case.
Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm dismissed the defendants’ appeals and upheld the primary ruling.
The accused from Comoros Islands will be deported.
The seven accused are aged between 19 and 22.
The 24-year-old said one night he was sleeping when a group of four entered 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 defendants might beat me. Two days later, three more convicts came and did the same … then I reported the matter to the jail’s management,” he said.
A 19-year-old defendant told prosecutors that he had consensual sex with the inmate in his cell.
The appellate court ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.
