Dubai tourist who backtracked on rape claims given two-months jail

The Austrian woman, who has left the country, told police the Yemeni man assaulted her in his car. He denied this, however, saying they had a disagreement over payment for sex.

DUBAI // A tourist who said she had been raped in a car, then retracted her claims, has been handed a two-month jail term for consensual sex out of wedlock.

At the court of misdemeanours on Monday, the Austrian, I A, 26, was also fined Dh1,000 for consuming alcohol without a licence.

The man accused of raping her, Yemeni, A A, 27, was also sentenced for two months in prison for sex outside of wedlock.

The court that A A had approached I A in a nightclub and asked her to join him at his table.

Soon after, he suggested they go for a drive in his car.

“Once in the car, I took the back seat and he jumped in the driver’s seat before he moved back next to me,” said I A during an initial interview with police.

She said that he restrained her and then raped her.

“I resisted him at first but then gave in because I was scared, drunk and dizzy,” she said.

The police apprehended A A at his residence in Sharjah, while I A was arrested in her hotel after staff reported that she was drunk.

However, during interrogations by the prosecution, I A changed her story and said that the sex was with her consent.

“When we went to his car, A A asked if he can have sex with me because he finds me very attractive to which I said ‘yes’,” she said.

“We had a consensual intercourse in the back seat of his car but afterwards I was really depressed because I didn’t want to have sex with anyone besides my Lebanese boyfriend. I told him to leave me alone, I got out of the car then he left me and went home,” she said.

During his interrogation, A A said that I A had agreed to having sex with him if he paid her Dh1,200.

“When we reached my car, she sat in the backseat and started kissing me while I was in the driver’s seat,” he said.

“Then we had an intercourse in the backseat. After we finished she received a phone call and told me she had to leave, at which point I gave her Dh500 only, because the agreement was to spend the night with me but she only spent few hours,” he said, adding that she lost her temper with him.

A A pleaded not guilty to having consensual intercourse outside of wedlock when he appeared at the court last month.

I A was not present in court on Monday or at the previous hearing as she is believed to have left the country.