DUBAI // A man who posed as a policeman before kidnapping and raping a university student has been sentenced to ten years in prison.
AM, 26, an Emirati, found the student in a car with a male friend and threatened to report them, identifying himself as a police officer. But when he lured the student away from her friend and into his car he locked the doors and raped her on the back seat.
Prosecutors told the Criminal Court the student, 19, had gone to meet her friend at about 4pm on January 2 this year. She got in to his car and the pair waited for their tea to be delivered.
"The defendant knocked on my window, and asked us what we were doing and we said we weren't doing anything wrong," recalled her friend.
The man then started talking on his phone, pretending he was in contact with police colleagues and that he was reporting the young couple.
The student tried to calm him down and asked him not to make a big deal out of the matter, emphasising that the pair had done nothing wrong. The man then told her to go home.
She got into her own car, a Toyota Yaris, and drove down Al Ittihad Road in the direction of her home, but noticed the man driving next to her, flagging her down.
"He asked me to head to a nearby car park because he wanted to take my testimony," recalled the student.
The man then jumped into her car and began asking her about her relationship with her male friend. He then returned to his car and asked her to join him to sign a written testimony.
"When I refused, he threatened to call my mother so I got into his car," said the student.
After she climbed in he locked the doors and forced her to the back seat.
"I felt he was going to hurt me so I begged him to let me go as I cried so hard but he didn't listen, he was talking about how I should enjoy it as he played with my hair," she recalled.
He then raped her.
Afterwards he took her number and told her he would call her, saying they could be friends.
After the attack she told her male friend about what happened. She then went with her sister and mother to Muraqqabat police station to report the matter.
AM was arrested at his house at 3am the next day.
In court, he denied charges of rape, kidnap and impersonation of an officer. A forensics report found traces of his DNA on the student's body.
salamir@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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