DUBAI // A police officer sentenced in absentia to five years for accepting a sexual favour from an illegal resident in return for not reporting her has had his jail term reduced to one year.
The officer, 21-year-old S S had been caught by a security guard having sex with D D, 26, from Uzbekistan, on a stairwell at 5.45am on February 25 last year.
S S, who failed to appear in court for his first hearing and for yesterday’s verdict, initially had his sentence reduced to three years in a retrial before having it reduced to one year on appeal.
However, Dubai Criminal Court had ruled that he be discharged from the force and this was upheld by the Court of Appeal yesterday.
The Uzbek woman said in court that she had overstayed her visa and was scared of the officer, so she bribed him with sex.
On the morning of the incident, M A, 26, the security guard of her building, watched the building’s surveillance cameras and noticed the pair were heading to the fourth floor, which surprised him because the woman lived on the second floor. When he noticed them heading to the emergency exit, he decided to follow them.
“When I drew near, I saw the two having sex,” said the guard. He then watched the policeman leave the building and get into a patrol car. He noted the licence plate and reported the incident to police.
The woman and the policeman were charged with consensual sex outside of wedlock. The woman was also charged with offering sex as a bribe and the policeman with accepting sex as a bribe.
The woman admitted the charges and was previously sentenced to three years, followed by deportation.
salamir@thenational.ae
