Rapist’s prison term doubled

Pakistani given 10 years for attack on Filipina friend

DUBAI // A man convicted of robbing and raping a female friend he met on social media will spend the next 10 years in prison after his sentence was doubled by the Dubai Court of Appeal.

The 27- year- old Pakistani denied charges of rape and theft at Dubai Criminal Court in August last year.

He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in jail to be followed by deportation. He appealed against the sentence but lost.

The appeals court increased his prison term to 10 years.

“I didn’t rape her, the sex happened with her consent, and as for the theft she deliberately left her bag in my car to frame me and blackmail me,” he told the judges. The rapist befriended the Filipina saleswoman on WhatsApp several months before the incident on June 6. “He invited me to suhoor and picked me up from home at around 1.30am,” said the 32-year-old victim.

She described how the defendant stopped his car in a deserted area, grabbed her by the hair and assaulted her before ripping off her clothes and raping her as she cried and begged him to stop. “He stole my bag with my phone in it to prevent me from calling police,” said the woman, who was thrown out of the car in Al Mutainah.

A security guard rushed to help her. “The car’s door was still open as it sped off,” said the Sri Lankan. The guard gave her his phone to call police.

The rapist was later arrested and the woman’s bag found in his home.