DUBAI // A cook was sentenced to five years in jail on Monday for raping a woman at knifepoint and threatening to kill her.
Sri Lankan W W, 23, forced himself upon the Belarusian victim, 33, in her friend’s apartment on May 4 last year.
Prosecutors said the rapist lived in the same flat as the friend and approached the woman to ask where he was.
“It was 9am when he came asking about my friend. I told him he was at work and he then pushed me into the room and locked the door, hiding the key in his pocket,” said the woman.
He had picked up a knife from the kitchen beforehand and then used it to scare her into having sex with him.
“He said he wanted to have sex with me so I refused. He then pushed me, waving the knife in my face, asking me whether I would prefer to be killed or raped,” she said.
The Belarusian tried to talk him into taking her money and jewellery instead but he insisted on raping her. She tried to escape his grip but he had her by the hair, with the knife pointed at her throat.
“I told him that my friend’s roommate has another key and would come any minute and unlock the door, so he returned the key to the door,” she said.
The woman said that she was then able to distract her attacker and run out of the room. She reported the incident to the building’s security, who called police.
“A woman came crying to me during my night shift and told me that a man had raped her,” testified Pakistani security guard S S, 36.
“When I spoke to him, he said she was framing him because he discovered she was cheating on her boyfriend, who is his friend.”
At the Dubai Criminal Court last September the rapist, who was drunk when police arrived to arrest him, denied rape and issuing threats to kill and said that the woman made up the story after the two had a heated argument.
“I didn’t rape her, we had an argument, after which she claimed I raped her,” said W W.
“I didn’t threaten her but I had a few beers,” he said.
As well as being jailed for five years he was sentenced to two additional months in jail for the threats and for drinking alcohol without a licence.
He will be deported after serving his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae
