Man who raped woman and locked up her family has jail sentence reduced

Pakistani threatened to harm the woman's mother, daughter and sister if she did not have sex with him and two other men.

DUBAI // A life sentence against one of three men who raped a woman after locking up her family and threatening to harm them if she did not have sex with them was reduced to 15 years in jail.

Dubai Court of Appeals reduced the sentence against M F, 38, from Pakistan, who was convicted of human trafficking, rape, locking up his victim, her mother, daughter and sister, as well as facilitating prostitution.

His countrymen M T, 55, and R P, 41, were found guilty of rape and were each sentenced to three years in jail by Dubai Criminal Court. However, their jail terms were reduced to three months each on appeal.

M F offered the 20-year-old Pakistani victim a job at a beauty salon after contacting her through a middleman but she refused to travel to the UAE because of her daughter and the fact that her mother would not allow it.

She said the defendant then agreed to allow her to bring her mother, daughter and sister.

They arrived in Dubai on August 1 last year and were taken to a flat near Dubai Hospital, in Deira, that belonged to M F.

“There, M F told me that I wouldn’t be working in a salon, and that I would have to prostitute myself or he would hurt my family,” said the woman.

Hours after her arrival, she said he raped her. The next morning he took her to a hotel where she met M T and R P, who had paid M F to have sex with her, according to court statements.

“When I refused to have sex with them, they called M F, who then threatened to cause harm to my family because they were under his mercy, so I gave in and had sex and danced for the two men,” she said.

The victim’s sister told the court they were kept in a garage at a house.

“It was our first day when my sister was taken by M F, who said she had to go to her job interview. She returned at nearly 3am and was crying,” said the victim’s sister.

“I took her away from her daughter and our mother so she wouldn’t wake them up, and she told me what had happened to her.”

She told the police about her ordeal but M F blindfolded her mother, sister and daughter, assaulted them and took them to another house.

The sister said: “M F told me and my mother that if we wanted him to let us go we should pay him a ransom, so we called my father in Pakistan, who had to mortgage our house and wire the money.”

When he received the money, M F ordered the mother to go to police and claim that her daughter was “crazy” and that she had told lies.

After the mother did this, she was released together with the sister and daughter.

They all denied charges in both courts. However, they were all convicted and will be deported after serving their jail reduced terms.