'Tight jeans saved my friend from rape'

A victim of a rape case involving three men, has told the Dubai Criminal Court that the tight jeans her friend was wearing saved her, but she was subject to a sexual attack.

The two woman, SS, 22, an Iranian and her compatriot MA, were walking towards the Jumeirah open beach at around 3am on February 2.

“A car with tinted glass stopped next to us and three men were in it. Two men, aged between 20 and 25, got off and one of them showed us a Police ID and claimed to be CID.

“One of the men asked us to present our IDs and we showed out our Iranian ID cards.

“However, he claimed that we were drunk and had to accompany them to the police station.

“When we refrained, the third man got off the car and assisted his friends in pushing us into the car, assuring us that they were policemen and we had to listen to them.

“One of the men punched us in our faces and our noses began to bleed,” SS told the court.

One of the men, who later proved to be MR, 20, an Emirati student, asked one of the women MA to have sex with him in the car and threatened her with a can of pepper spray.

“Since my friend was wearing tight jeans he could not pull them off. So he turned to me and since I was wearing a skirt he forced himself on me,” SS told investigators.

The other two men were later identified as MH, 23, a jobless Comoros national and RK, 23, a policeman.

“My rapist had beaten me up. He then opened my bag and stole Dh500,” SS said, adding that they kept driving in rotation until 8am when they stopped near a bakery where they allowed the girls to get out of the car.

Emirati bank manager to the rescue

According to the testimony the court heard, the girls sought refuge in the bakery, but the men followed them inside as well.
The Emirati manager of a bank right next to the bakery on arriving at work noticed the melee going on near the bakery.

In his testimony he says, “I got into the bakery and saw the two men, while the two women were standing in the corner.
“I asked the men what they were doing. They answered that they were waiting for their order and denied causing any problem for the women.
“The women told me that they had been raped and the one wearing a skirt had her nose bleeding.

“I called the police and asked the men to wait because of the women’s rape claim. The men said they were going to smoke outside the bakery.
“I asked the two women to wait on the bank’s premises to keep them secure.

“Later, I noticed that the men were moving out in their car, so I followed them until they stopped at a sandy area.
“A third man who was waiting there drove the car to a street in front of a house under construction from where they climbed the fence and got into a house adjacent to it.”

“When the police arrived and I guided them to whereabouts of the men,” testified WA, the Emirati bank manager.
The manager claimed he did not smell any alcohol on the girls and that the men were acting abnormal.

The police eventually arrested the three men - MR, 20, student, the one accused of raping SS and attempted to rape the other woman; MH, 20, jobless and RK, 23, a policeman.

The police also reviewed the camera footage of the bank and saw the men pushing and assaulting the women outside the bakery.
A urine test proved that the three were under the influence of drugs.

The accused have denied the accusations and claimed that the women went willingly with them. The court will reconvene on September 9.