HR director found guilty of consensual sex with maid

Dubai: The Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday sentenced a human resources director to one year imprisonment for having consensual sex with his housemaid.

The 22-year-old Ethiopian earlier accused her 48-year-old Palestinian employer of rape.

Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir dropped the rape charge and modified it to consensual sex.

"The accused will be deported after the completion of his punishment," said the judge.

The verdict is still subject to appeal within 15 days.

Fabricated

The accused, W.H. denied the charge and accused his housemaid, F.H., of fabricating the rape allegations against him, which was allegedly filed one week after he reported her absconding.

He pleaded not guilty and denied the accusation that he repeatedly raped her in his flat.

Prosecutors charged the Palestinian with repeatedly having sex with the housemaid against her will in his flat in Dubai.

According to the arraignment sheet, he allegedly dragged F.H. into his bedroom where he undressed the victim and forced her to have sex.

F.H. testified that the suspect allegedly raped her in his flat in Dubai nearly three or four times.

"First time he stalked me. He forced me to sit on his lap claiming that he wanted to show me his children's pictures on his mobile phone. I turned him down. The first time he raped me was when he took me from his house in Abu Dhabi to the flat in Dubai where he claimed he wanted me to have my medical checkup for the residency. The next day when we returned from the checkup, he raped me in the bedroom," she claimed.

She alleged that he raped her at the same location over several months.

"He once took his wife and children to the mall, and then he returned to rape me. He threatened to kill me if I told anyone including his wife," she claimed.

An Emirati lieutenant testified that F.H., accompanied by a representative from the Ethiopian Embassy, went to the police station to report the alleged rape incidents.