Dubai policeman testifies in case of TV show star accused of rape

DUBAI // A policeman and a housekeeper have given evidence in the case of a French teenager who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a television celebrity.

Emirati S S, 34, is accused of raping the 19-year-old after inviting her to a party at his villa in Jumeirah on July 5 last year.

His compatriot A A, 23, is accused of molesting the woman after his friend had raped her.

At Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday, Emirati police corporal A M A, 45, said that he finished his night shift at 6am the day after the alleged incident and went out for a walk near his home.

He was alerted by a security guard who worked in the area that he had seen a woman lying in a building site.

“I found the girl with her lower half completely naked. I didn’t touch the body as I didn’t know if she was dead or alive,” he said.

“I immediately called the police then I called my wife and told her to bring a blanket to cover her naked body.”

Sri Lankan N N, who works for the defendant S S as a housekeeper, said he was asked to clean the villa the day after the incident.

“S S calls me from time to time to clean up the villa and take care of his dogs. When I went to clean the bedroom, I found a lot of papers scattered in the room and bottles of alcohol. I also found a weird liquid on the bed,” he told the court.

He was asked by the judge if he had seen the French women at the scene.

“I never saw the victim in the villa,” he said.

Previously, the French woman had described how she met the men at the Sheraton hotel in Jumeirah Beach Residence, then drove with them to their villa where they all consumed alcohol.

“I fainted and then woke up in hospital and knew I had been raped,” she said.

The next hearing will be on May 24.

newsdesk@thenational.ae

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”