Dubai Cassation Court acquits man of pushing prostitute out of hotel window

The Dubai Cassation Court upheld the acquittal of a British citizen who was accused of pushing a prostitute out of a hotel window but upheld his sentencing to three months in jail followed by deportation after finding him guilty of consensual sex.

ZA, 37, salesman, had won acquittal from both the Courts of First Instance and Appeal of the charge of physical assault but was found guilty of consensual sex and consuming alcohol for which he was sentenced to three months in jail followed by deportation. He was also ordered to pay a fine of Dh1,000 for consuming alcohol.

Both ZA and the Prosecution appealed the sentence before the Cassation Court which upheld the lower courts’ verdict.
 
His consensual sex partner AK, 36, was awarded three months in jail for practicing prostitution. She appealed the verdict and the Court of Appeal upheld her sentence last November. This sentence was final as she did not bring it up before the Cassation Court.

According to the records, AK told investigators that on October 23, 2010 she met ZA in a bar at Panorama Hotel in Bur Dubai and she sat with him since he was sitting alone. “I went with him to Fortune Hotel where we had a row. As ZA left the room, I rushed to the door and locked it. I opened the window and started shouting for help. I phoned the taxi driver, who usually offers me transport, to pick me up from the hotel. I also asked some people gathered below the building to call someone form the reception. 

“While I was taking again to the driver Mustafa, the accused entered the room, though I don’t know how. I was standing at the edge of the window. ZA held my hands and pushed me out onto the street. I fell on top of a car from the first floor. I got down and walked into the hotel’s reception and asked them to call the police. An ambulance arrived and I was rushed to the hospital where I received treatment for a fracture in my spine and bruises caused by the fall,” she testified.

Forensic doctor Sahar Ahmad, 43, Egyptian testified that she checked the victim on October 24, 2010 and reported that the injuries and fracture could have happened as a result of a fall from a height.

She checked the victim again on July 5, 2011 and reported that the fracture had healed. However, the victim was left with 30 per cent permanent disability. The fall could have caused her death if the fracture was more severe and if the blood vessels in the spine had been damaged, the doctor reported.

Mohammed Mustafa, 30, Pakistani driver, testified that the AK is his regular customer and he used to transport her to clubs without knowing the nature of her work.

“On October 23, 2010 at around 11.30pm, AK called me and she was screaming and crying, asked for help then hung up. I called her again but she did not answer. On arriving at the hotel, I saw someone reversing his car at high speed in the parking lot had collided into something. Then the hotel’s security came and caught him. I did not know that he was the one of whom AK was scared.

“I entered the reception and told the hotel employee that I had come on the request of AK who was screaming and crying when she called me. The employee told me that she is in the next room. I entered the room where AK lay crying in pain. She asked me to call for an ambulance which I did.

“The security staff brought the man into the hotel and he seems to be very drunk and did not understand what they were telling him. When they brought him into the room where AK was lying, she screamed and cried, asking them to keep him away from her. Then she told me it was he who pushed her out from the first floor window but did not give any details as she was in pain. Two days later, I visited her in hospital and she told me that she had sustained a fracture in the spine,” the taxi driver testified.

Dinish Nayer, 33, hotel receptionist, testified that when AK came to the reception she was naked and asked him for help, saying that there is a mad man in room 105. “She was crying and screaming in pain. It seemed that she had fallen from the first floor on top of a car. I rushed to the room and saw that the window was open. A man was trying to run away in his car from the hotel. I ran after him but he left his car and fled.

“The two had entered the hotel arm-in-arm that evening, laughing and smiling. She told me he is her lover but she looked like a prostitute. In the room after the incident, there were two bottles of wine, one of which was almost empty while the other was not open, and were not from the hotel. There was also one glass, a cigarette box and a used condom. There was not any mess in the room or any traces of blood. The dress that she was wearing when she entered the hotel with the man, was neatly placed on the dressing table and her watch was on top of it,” he testified.

Mohammed Iyaz, 50, British businessman, testified that he was with ZA in his room in Fortune Hotel. Then they both left for a bar and restaurant in Panorama Hotel.

“A woman approached us and offered massage and sex for Dh500 per hour. I did not pay attention to her and went to the bathroom. When I returned I saw that the woman and ZA were not there. I met some friends and stayed there. Then I got a call from the hotel informing me that a woman had jumped from the window of my room. Police called me and I knew from them that ZA was with the woman in my room,” he testified.

Iyaz told the Prosecution that the woman was a prostitute as she had offered him and ZA sex against money. After the incident, ZA told his friend that the row between him and the prostitute was about the money he had to pay her.

Lieutenant Musad Ali testified that at around 12.45am on October 23, Al Rifaa Police Station was notified about the incident. “When I arrived with my colleague, we checked the apartment and it seemed that the crime took place after the two had sex. The woman who fell from the open window had been rushed to Rashid Hospital. The accused was arrested about 100 metres away from the hotel and he was very drunk.”

AK confessed to the officer that she had consensual sex with ZA.

Lt. Omar Awad repeated the same testimony and said that the victim admitted that a dispute started about the money he should pay for the massage she offered him. “She claimed that ZA had pushed her out of the window. However, it did not seem the accused had committed violence on her. She was injured by the fall.”

ZA denied before the Court that he had assaulted AK or that he had consensual sex but admitted to consuming alcohol.

The Court of First Instance acquitted him of pushing the prostitute out of the window because of the lack of evidence but convicted him of consensual sex and consuming alcohol for which he received three months in jail, deportation and Dh1,000 fine.

The verdict was upheld by both the Courts of Appeal and Cassation.

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