Man posing as police officer accused of raping driver, UAE court hears

Man accused of raping a woman on Abu Dhabi's Corniche claims she invited him to have sex with her, but started screaming when he refused to pay her.

ABU DHABI // A man posing as a police officer forced his way into a car parked on the Corniche and raped the female driver, a court heard today.

The Emirati HK was said to have followed the Lebanese woman after she stopped to order a sandwich from a petrol station at midnight.

The woman claims he stopped his car next to hers at the drive through then gestured with his hand for her to follow him. She said she ignored him and drove to an empty parking spot behind the station to eat her sandwich and that he then followed her before knocking on her window and introducing himself as a CID officer.

She said that after she asked him to show his ID card he walked back to his car before returning. He then reached inside her window and opened the door before choking her and ripping her clothes off. She ran to the street but fell between two cars and he caught her up. He then began to rape her. She said the attack was cut short when a passerby heard her screams and chased her attacker away.

At the Criminal Court today, the Emirati denied a charge of rape, claiming that the woman had asked him to have sex with her, but became angry when he didn't pay her.

He said she gestured to him at the drive through, asking him to follow her to the car park.

"We started making out. Then she asked me to have full intercourse with her but I said I couldn't because I did not have a condom on me," he explained.

He said a passerby scolded them for carrying out sexual activities in the street and told them to "at least hide inside the car".

"She could have asked him for help if she was getting raped," he added.

He said that afterwards the woman asked him to pay her, but he refused, saying they had not agreed the sex would be in return for payment.

"So then she ripped her clothes off and started screaming 'he raped me, he raped me'."

A medical report found signs of resistance on the woman's body and traces of the man's blood and DNA on her clothes. Police also found his ghutra and slippers in her car.

The petrol station's CCTV cameras showed the man's car stop next to the woman's. It also showed him opening his window and following her to the parking area.

The case was adjourned.