DUBAI // Three men who posed as policemen and stalked women before raping them were each jailed for a year yesterday.
The men, all under 21, targeted women as they left hotels late at night.
They introduced themselves as police officers before taking their victims to the desert in a black Hummer, where they would rob and rape them before leaving them stranded.
One woman was approached on December 3 last year as she left the Hyatt Regency hotel with her friend looking for a taxi.
“They said they were police and offered to give us a lift,” said the woman. They climbed in and were grabbed by two men who took their handbags before throwing the woman’s friend out of the vehicle.
They drove her to the desert and threatened her with an electric stun gun before taking turns to rape her.
They then abandoned her. “I walked until I reached a main road and took a taxi to my residence,” said the woman, who filed a police complaint two days later.
Another woman, from Uzbekistan, said she and her friend had also been picked up by three men in a black Hummer. They were taken to the desert, raped and robbed and abandoned.
A security guard at the Hyatt Regency hotel, E?A, 22, from Nigeria, said he had seen the black Hummer several times in front of the hotel and that the men inside would pester women for sex.
“I was then informed by my boss that several women had complained of being picked up in a black Hummer before being raped.”
During prosecution investigations, the men denied raping the women and claimed the sex was consensual.
At their trial at the Criminal Court, M?H, 20, from Denmark; O?Q, 19, from Egypt; and M?S, 19, a Palestinian, denied rape and robbery but were found guilty of both charges. The court also ordered the seizure of a stun gun they used to carry out their crimes.
salamir@thenational.ae
salamir@thenational.ae