DUBAI // An appeal by prosecutors against a man found not guilty of trespassing and raping his ex-girlfriend’s sister has been rejected.
At Dubai Criminal Court last December Emirati MF, 34, was charged with rape, issuing threats to kill, trespassing and physical assault, all of which he denied.
“I did not threaten nor beat her, I entered the place with her consent,” he told judges.
The 23-year-old woman, who holds a Comoros Islands passport, testified that her sister, who had been in a relationship with the Emirati, had left for Abu Dhabi and so she went to sleep.
Just before 2am on August 28 last year she said she heard someone in the bedroom at their house in Al Rashidiya.
“I was surprised to seem him in my bedroom carrying a stun gun,” she said.
“I asked him how he got into the house but he did not answer and, instead, he took away my phones.”
She said sensed danger and pretended to be sick to get him to take her to the hospital.
As they left the house for his car, a friend who was invited to spend the night with her saw them and the woman said she threw herself to the floor and started screaming for help.
The friend ran away and the woman was allegedly dragged back into the house by the defendant, prosecutors claimed. They said that the man then raped her.
“He told me before he raped me that he wanted to burn my sister’s heart and also punish me for screaming outside,” she told prosecutors.
She said he also threatened to burn down the house and kill her. “He grabbed me by the neck and said to me: ‘Do you want me to kill you now?’” recalled the woman.
He then left the house, she said, leaving her with bruises all over her body. She then called police.
The victim’s friend, Emirati SS, 22, said: “I went to her house so I can sleep over. I saw her being dragged by a man and when I asked who he was, he reached to his pocket and I thought he was picking up a weapon, so I freaked out and left.”
A forensic report confirmed the bruises on the woman’s body were consistent with her story.
The report also said that recent sexual intercourse could not be confirmed by medical examination but it was possible that it had happened.
However, the Court of Appeal again threw out all charges against the man.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
