Five-year sentence for rape upheld on appeal

DUBAI // A man jailed for five years for raping his Indonesian maid had his sentence upheld by the Dubai Court of Appeal on Sunday.

Emirati R A, 29, was initially sentenced in absentia to life in prison but was granted a retrial on condition of his presence in court, which is a law-given right to those sentenced in absentia.

At his retrial the Dubai Criminal Court convicted him of rape and sentenced him to five years instead of life. But he lost his appeal against the reduced sentence and the court upheld the jail term.

On November 27 last year, R A had asked the 30-year-old maid to come to his room to iron his clothes. She was busy making breakfast to take to his wife, who was in hospital, but he insisted.

When she went, he locked the door and took away the key.

Anticipating danger, the woman tried to hide in the bathroom but R A managed to grab her from behind and throw her to the ground. He twisted both her arms then sat on top of her before raping her.

“I begged him repeatedly, I reminded him he was married, asked him how would he feel if someone did the same to his wife. I told him I was married, I begged him but in vain,” said the victim.

She told prosecutors that R A often molested her. “He would come to my room, hug me and touch my breast. I told him on these incidents that I would scream, so he used to leave me alone, but this time no one was around as the other two maids were in the outside kitchen,” she said.

Prosecutors said that after raping the woman, R A forced her to take Dh200. “I refused but he said he would kill me, and would break my arm,” she said.

She returned to the kitchen and told her fellow maids what had happened, they then advised her to run away. But her employer stopped her at the entrance to the house and forced her back inside.

“He threatened to kill me if I told anyone,” she said.

The woman later managed to contact her embassy, which advised her to call the police. Officers arrived at R A’s house and spoke to the woman before taking her to the station and opening a case file.