DUBAI // A man who was sentenced in absentia to life in jail for raping his maid has had his term reduced to five years in a retrial.
Dubai Criminal Court sentenced Emirati R A, 29, in his absence, to life in jail but he applied for a retrial, a right given to those sentenced in absentia.
Prosecutors said that he threatened to kill his Indonesian maid if she did not bow to his demands.
On November 27 last year R A called on his 30-year-old maid to iron his clothes in his room.
“I was preparing breakfast for his hospitalised wife so I asked him to bring his clothes to the kitchen and I will have them ironed,” testified the victim.
She recalled that he insisted she come to his room. When she went, he locked the door and removed the key. Anticipating danger, the woman tried to take refuge in the bathroom but R A grabbed her, threw he to the ground and raped her.
“I begged him repeatedly, I reminded him he was married, asked him how he would 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 also told prosecutors that her sponsor often touched her since she arrived in the country. “He would come to my room, hug me and touch my breast,” she said. “I told him that I would scream, so he used to leave me, but this time no one was in the house — the other two maids were in the outside kitchen.”
Prosecutors said that R A, after raping the woman, forced her to take Dh200. “I refused but he said he would kill me, and would break my arm,” she said.
The other two maids knew something was up and eventually got the woman to tell them what had happened. They advised her to run away but she was stopped at the entrance to the house by her sponsor and forced back inside. “He threatened to kill me if I told anyone,” she said.
The woman then managed to call the Indonesian Embassy, which advised her to call police.
R A will now serve the reduced term of five years in jail.
salamir@thenational.ae
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Two bedroom: Dh627 to Dh960
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Two bedroom: Dh646 to Dh1,003
Three bedroom: Dh743 to Dh1,154
• City Walk
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Frank Porter’s average Airbnb rent:
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Two bedroom: Dh682 to Dh1,052
Three bedroom: Dh784 to Dh1,210
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Two bedroom: Dh549 to Dh818
Three bedroom: Dh631 to Dh941
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Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
