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
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
