Jail terms upheld for men who raped Briton in Dubai after spiking her drink

Two men who kidnapped and raped a woman they met at a Dubai nightclub have their ten-year jail sentences upheld by the Cassation Court.

DUBAI // Two men who kidnapped and raped a British woman after spiking her drink at a Dubai nightclub have had their 10-year jail sentences upheld by the Cassation Court.

The verdict means Younis Jan Ali and Ameen Kaos Najati, who can now be identified, have exhausted the appeals process and must serve the terms. A third attacker remains at large.

The woman was gang raped by the three Iranian men after a night out at the Rock Bottom Cafe in Regent Palace Hotel in Bur Dubai on July 6 last year.

Not knowing her drink had been spiked, she began to feel drunk and left the hotel, hailing a cab to return home. But shortly after she was picked up by a cab she fell asleep on the back seat.

She awoke after a while and asked to stop at an ATM, but still groggy found herself unable to withdraw money and returned to the car and collapsed.

The three Iranian men then pulled up in a red Hyundai and told the taxi driver they knew the woman and would take care of her.

They took her to a flat in Naif where they took turns raping her.

The woman made repeated attempts to escape, but kept getting dragged back by one of the men.

“He told me: ‘You can’t run away’,” the woman recalled. “I noticed one of them filming me and I begged them to let me go but they ignored my pleas and laughed at me, speaking to each other in broken English.”

When the attack was over she was left alone and returned home. The next day she and her flatmate reported the attack to police.

At the Criminal Court last November Ali and Najati, both 20, denied a rape charge. Their defence lawyer claimed the woman fabricated the story. The court did not agree and sentenced them to 10 years in jail to be followed by deportation.

The sentences were upheld by the Appeals and Cassation courts.