DUBAI // A police officer accused of the kidnap, attempted rape and sexual assault of a 21-year-old tourist was jailed on Tuesday.
Emirati policeman K A, 26, used a false name to contact Yemeni woman BA on Blackberry Messenger before offering her a lift to Dubai Mall on August 31 last year.
Instead of taking her to the mall, he drove her to a remote area where he tried to rape her.
She managed to resist before he threw her out the car and stopped a taxi for her.
“I was stopped by a Land Cruiser at nearly 9.30pm and was asked by a man in a kandura to drive a woman to Dubai Mall,” said the Bangladeshi taxi driver H A, 38.
“I saw the woman sitting in the front seat in his car, she was crying.”
He said when the woman got into his cab, she curled up on the back seat and was crying loudly.
“She told me to save her then asked me to make sure the Land Cruiser was not following us before I drive her to a police station. She was very scared and told me the man beat her up,” added the taxi driver.
Police were not able to apprehend the man at the time because they were looking for the fake name the defendant gave his victim. When officers went back to camera recordings from where the defendant picked up his victim, the car’s plate number was noted down and KA was apprehended.
A forensic report confirmed DNA traces found on the woman’s abaya came from K A.
At Dubai Criminal Court, the Emirati entered a plea of not guilty to the charges of kidnap, attempted rape and sexual assault.
However, he was sentenced to one year in jail for the sexual assault charge, and acquitted of the charge of attempted rape and kidnap.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
