Seven-year terms upheld for Dubai drivers who raped woman in back of bus



DUBAI // Two drivers who pretended to be policemen before taking turns to rape a job-seeking female accountant in the back of a bus have had their seven-year jail sentence upheld.

The Filipina victim had met one of her attackers in a nightclub and he lured her into leaving with him by promising to find her a job.

L B, 31, said she was at the nightclub with friends who were visiting from Oman in the early hours of December 21, 2013.

“I sat near a man whom I had met in the elevator. He told me he was a Belgian investor and new in the UAE,” she said.

Later that night she talked with the man, Pakistani defendant N N, 31, again and he invited her to his hotel room to have a drink and discuss a job opportunity.

“We took a cab that dropped us near his hotel and we started walking,” she said.

“We passed near a parked white bus and all of a sudden he opened the bus door and pushed me inside it. Once inside he closed the door and slapped me on my face and said he was a detective and flashed an ID that I didn’t really see clearly.

“Then I saw the other defendant, A K, 27, sitting in the driver’s seat. He looked at me and told me he was working with Dubai Police, then he started driving.”

The first man then attacked the woman, beating and choking her while asking if she was a prostitute and who her pimp was.

“He ordered me to sexually pleasure A K, at which point he stopped the bus and came back near me and N N sat in the driver’s seat and continued driving,” she said.

Later the first man grabbed the woman by the hair and forced her to pleasure him, then lowered her trousers and raped her. When he was done, he switched with fellow Pakistani A K, who also forced her to pleasure him before raping her.

Emirati police officer A A, 27, testified that the victim managed to remember part of the number plate of the bus.

“We were able to locate the bus and apprehend the defendants. They stole a gold ring and Dh3,000 from the victim as well as her Blackberry,” said the officer.

A forensic report showed that DNA matching one of the defendants was found on her body but not the other, who used a condom when he raped her.

The pair did not appear at Dubai Criminal Court last May to face charges of kidnap, rape, theft and impersonation of police officers. They were convicted last December but both appealed and lost their appeal bid when the sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Both men will be deported after completing their jail terms.

salamir@thenational.ae

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Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

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