28-year-old jailed for molesting longtime friend

DUBAI — An Emirati, who lured his longtime friend to his parents’ camel farm to have dinner with his brothers’ girlfriends but then sexually assaulted her, was sentenced to one year in jail by the Court of First Instance on Sunday.

According to prosecution records, the 28-year-old man, who is a public officer, invited the Italian woman to accompany him to his villa in Jebel Ali. He took advantage that none was around, to force himself on her.

He denied a sexual assault charge earlier in court while his lawyer argued that the complainant was seeking to blackmail his client.

The complainant, 23, said she worked at the Dubai Duty Free and that was how she and the accused became friends.

He picked her up on May 28, 2016, after she sent him her location on WhatsApp. “He invited me to dinner in his villa, saying his brothers’ girlfriends would also be there. He drove to a camel farm and we entered a villa,” she recounted.

Every time she would ask him about his brothers he would pretend to be talking on the phone and then tell her they were on the way.

“He took my phone and at 3.40am, he dragged me by force to the bedroom where he sexually assaulted me,” she claimed.

When she ran outside the villa and tried to ask some people to call the police, the accused came after her and pulled her by her hair, saying he would not be responsible if something bad happened to her. He dropped her later at her place. She and her 33-year-old Moroccan friend went to the Jebel Ali police station where she lodged a complaint. The forensic report showed the woman was sexually assaulted and his DNA traces were found under her fingernails.

The accused admitted during the public prosecution investigation that he took the woman to his villa but denied having sexually or physically assaulted her.