Dubai court acquits man of kidnapping Ethiopian woman

The woman claimed the defendant had dragged her from outside a cafe into his car, then into his flat, where he tried to rape her.

DUBAI // A man has been acquitted by the Criminal Court of kidnapping a woman and taking her to his home to rape her.

“She is my girlfriend and she went out with me of her own free will. I didn’t kidnap her,” said K S, an Emirati.

Prosecutors said that just after midnight on May 1, K S met the Ethiopian woman at a cafe.

“I was with my friend when he walked up to me, pulled me by my hand into his car then pulled my hair to drag me into the car,” she said. “I couldn’t resist him and when we got to his apartment he pulled me by the hair from the car into his residence,” the woman said.

Once inside the flat, she said he took his clothes off and forced her to remove hers.

“I was resisting him and then he received a call from police, which made him get dressed. Then he made me put my clothes on and then he let me out of his flat,” she said.

Another Ethiopian, J S, 28, said that K S and the woman had been having a relationship for two months. “When he came to the cafe and pulled her into his car, she did not scream or resist,” said J S.

K S denied the kidnap charge.