Omani Man cleared of rape but guilty of molesting

The man is sentenced to one month in jail yesterday after a court convicted him on the sexual molestation charges only.

DUBAI // A man who was charged with the kidnapping, battery, rape and sexual molestation of a Lebanese woman was sentenced to one month in jail yesterday after a court convicted him on the sexual molestation charges only.

The woman, 34, was found on the side of a Ras al Khaimah road after being picked up by the man, a 26-year-old Omani, at a hotel in Dubai, prosecutors said.

The man, who denied the charges, was found not guilty of rape, kidnapping and battery by the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance.

The case was first brought before Judge Hamad Abdel Latif on April 22. The woman told prosecutors that she was kidnapped by AA from the front of the Towers Rotana Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road on July 19, 2008.

She said she was contacted via telephone by the Omani man two days before the alleged abduction, and he began flirting with her. She told prosecutors she did not know how he got her telephone number.

The woman said that on the day of the incident she went to the hotel but found it crowded and decided to leave. As she was leaving, she said she received a call from AA, and she agreed to meet him.

The defendant, according to records, picked up the woman in his BMW and drove towards Ras al Khaimah.

When she asked him where they were going he locked the car's doors and drove towards a deserted area on the side of the motorway. They stopped in front of a sign that indicated they were in RAK.

Public prosecution claim the woman was raped several times and sexually molested by the defendant. The woman said AA also battered her with a wooden stick before fleeing and leaving her on the side of the road.

Prosecutors have two weeks in which to appeal.