DUBAI // A man lost his appeal against a 10-year sentence handed down for raping a woman he met on the texting application WhatsApp.
Emirati F M, 29, had denied rape at Dubai Criminal Court last October, telling the judge: “No. This did not happen, I didn’t do anything to her. I met her once at a public place and she was with her friend.”
Prosecutors said that the 24-year-old Emirati victim said she knew F M through WhatsApp.
“He told me he texted my number by mistake and then we started texting and the relationship grew into love and, later, he told me he was divorced and has a child who lives with his family,” she said.
The woman said that she met F M on the day of the incident, February 27 last year, to tell him that a man had asked for her hand in marriage.
“He met me and my friend at Global Village and then he took me in his car for a short drive,” she said, adding that he drove to a remote area so she got scared and asked him to take her back. The man did not listen, parked the car in a dark area and then started touching his victim.
“He forced himself upon me and I couldn’t resist him because he was very strong,” she said.
F M then raped the woman, who said she suffered bleeding after the assault. F M then drove her back to Global Village, where she met her friend and returned home.
“He called me later that night and promised to marry me, [but] he kept stalling. I felt he was lying so I reported him to police,” she said.
The victim’s friend, L H, 23, testified that after he was reported to police, F M called the victim’s mother and told her that the sex had been consensual and that her daughter had been in previous sexual relations with other men.
Police officer M A said that in his testimony, the man claimed to have had sex with the woman three times with her consent.
Despite a forensic report that showed no sign of forced sex, F M lost his appeal on Thursday and will serve his sentence.
salamir@thenational.ae
