DUBAI // A Kuwaiti tourist has been jailed for six months over the rape of an Indian businesswoman he met in a nightclub after she offered to help him with investments.
Dubai Criminal Court was told that the woman, 34, met the 39-year-old Kuwaiti at a club last year and they chatted for a while.
“He asked about my nationality and I told him Indian but carrying a US passport,” she said. “Then he told me he wanted to invest in the US. I offered to help but then we were interrupted and didn’t exchange numbers.”
A few days later, on November 11, they met at another club in a hotel in Jumeirah.
“When the club was to close, he asked to resume our discussion. I agreed so we sat for a while in the lobby then went to his suite in the same hotel, where a friend of his joined us but sat in the other room,” the businesswoman said.
She said that when she wanted to leave, he assaulted her and tried to pull her by the leg into the bedroom.
“His friend tried to stop him and told him to let me go but he wouldn’t listen and he pushed him out of the room and locked the door,” the woman said.
When she tried to call police he snatched her phone from her hand and beat her before stripping her naked and raping her, she said.
“When he was done, there was a knock on the door. It was room service, so I ran out the door and called police then waited for them at the lobby,” said the woman.
The defendant told police that the woman offered to have sex with him in return for Dh2,500 but when they were finished she increased the amount to Dh7,000.
The hotel’s security cameras showed the defendant and the woman holding hands and walking into his suite at 3.51am. It later showed her walking out of the room.
A forensic report failed to prove that she had been raped but confirmed that a sex encounter between the two had taken place.
On Monday, the court sentenced the Kuwaiti to six months in jail, followed by deportation, but did not give a reason for the sentence.
salamir@thenational.ae
