Men jailed over sexual assaults of girls

RAS AL KHAIMAH // Two men charged with the sexual assault of young girls in separate cases have each been sentenced to five years and deportation by the RAK Courts. In the first case, an Asian maintenance man in his twenties sexually assaulted a five-year-old, in her home when her mother left her to collect an appliance for another worker. RAK police said when the mother returned she attacked the man with a knife multiple times. In the second case, an Asian carpenter sexually assaulted an Arab girl, age nine, who lived near his workshop. In other cases, Judge Bilal Abd el Baqi reported that an Egyptian man, 25, was sentenced to four years for possession of 5g of hashish. Two Iranian fishermen, aged 25 and 28 years, were each sentenced to four years for possession of two grams of codeine found on their boat by the coast guard. Last month, five men in RAK were sentenced to death by firing squad for drug trafficking heroin, opium and hashish. [e-mail]