Thaer Zriqat
DUBAI // Three men serving 15-year prison sentences for impersonating police officers, kidnapping and raping a female tourist and attempting to rape her friend have had their jail terms reduced to seven years.
One of the Iranian victims, aged 22, said she and her friend were walking at about 3am on February 17 towards Jumeirah open beach.
“A car approached us and one of three men who were in the car presented a military ID, accusing us of being drunk,” she said.
The men stepped out of the car, she said, and one of them punched her on the nose, breaking it.
They also attacked her friend, she said. The women were forced into the back seat of the car, where one of the defendants, MK, asked to have sex with one of them but she refused.
The court heard that he tried to rape her but could not because she was wearing very tight jeans.
“He then raped my friend who was wearing a skirt. She resisted him but he overpowered her,” she said.
The rape victim said: “MK bought a big bottle of water from a petrol station and asked me to wash my body after he raped me.”
The victims said they were driven around until 8am and that the three men stole their money and threatened to have them hurt if they resisted or reported them.
“We screamed for help from inside the car but it was no use,” said one of the women. “They must have been on something because they were not acting normally but we didn’t smell alcohol on them. However, we saw small tablets in a plastic bag inside the car.”
One of the victims managed to get out of the car when it stopped. She ran into a restaurant and two of the defendants chased her inside.
Security film showed one woman running out of the car and the other trying to follow her but being stopped by the men.
MK, a 20-year-old Emirati student, unemployed MM, 23, from the Comoros Islands and Emirati policeman RK, 23, were found guilty of kidnapping under the influence of drugs, impersonating police officers, assaulting two women and stealing from them and issuing threats.
MM was also guilty of aiding and abetting by driving the car in which the tourists were kidnapped, while MK was found guilty of raping one of the women and trying to rape the other. RK was guilty of trying to rape one of them.
Each of the three men were given 15-year sentences in April but Dubai Court of Appeal has now reduced those sentences to 7 years each.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
