Was it Rape, Was it Consensual, Did it even Happen?

Man denies saleswoman’s rape charge

Businessman and saleswoman facing charges of consensual sex

Gulf News, Bassam Za'za', Legal and Court Correspondent

Dubai: A lawyer has strongly refuted a saleswoman’s claims that she was raped by his client and accused her of fabricating the charge in an attempt to force him to marry her.

The client, an Emirati businessman, and the Egyptian saleswoman have denied the charge of having consensual sex as they pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Misdemeanours Court.

Consensual sex outside of marriage is illegal in the UAE.

“I didn’t have sex with her,” the businessman told the court.

Meanwhile, the woman argued before the presiding judge that the Emirati had forced sex with her in October.

“This is a joke. She falsely and malevolently accused my client of raping her before police interrogators, who did not take up her claim … both [defendants] = were referred to the Public Prosecution for having consensual sex. Prosecutors also charged them with having consensual sex … yet she still insisted before the court and alleged that she had been raped. This is ridiculous. Her main aim is to pressure my client and force him to marry her,” the suspect’s lawyer argued in court.

The Egyptian also denied the accusation of having breached the Emirati’s privacy by unlawfully recording his voice over the phone.

According to her police statement, the saleswoman said her coworker introduced her to the businessman as he was looking for a wife.

“We got acquainted. One day the college where I had been studying took us on a field trip and I called him up and told him. He asked to meet me. I told him that we have to stop seeing each other after I sensed that he was not serious concerning our marriage.

One night in October, I was surprised to see him waiting for me beside my car once I left my workplace. He forced himself into my vehicle and asked me to drive to the beachside at Jumeirah … there he molested me and had forced and abnormal sex with me. I constantly refused to have sex with him and I always told him that I would only sleep with him once we get lawfully married … he raped me more than once. Later I reported him to the police,” she told the police.

Meanwhile, the Emirati strongly refuted the Egyptian’s claims and denied having had sex with her.
“I did not rape her or even have consensual sex with her. It never happened. Actually she is the one who used to force herself on me and she used to grab me every time she saw me. I did not promise her marriage,” he claimed to police interrogators.

In his defence argument, the Emirati’s lawyer argued before the court, “She had drawn up a plan to frame my client from the first day she met him. She thought he was a wealthy businessman since she had met him at the fancy branded store where she works. Her friend at work hooked them up. When she realised that her plan to fish him as a potential husband failed, she fabricated the claim that she had been raped.

Dubai Police’s forensic examination report confirmed that she had been used to having abnormal sex for more than a year. She only knew my client for few weeks … my client did not touch her. He did not rape her or even have consensual sex with her. She is a liar and her rape claims are nothing but a ridiculous and cheap attempt to force my client to marry her.”

A ruling will be heard later this month.