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29 March 2024

Salesman, accused of attempt to rape, acquitted by Dubai Court

Published
By Eman Al Baik

The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance acquitted a marketing executive of the accusation of attempting to rape a Filipino woman in her office after pretending interest in showing her how a massage device works.

According to the records, HH, Egyptian, 40, worked in a company located in the same floor of that of the victim.

“Two months ago he met me in the corridor and gave me his business card but I did not give him any attention.  Later, he met me again and asked me why I did not call him. I politely answered him that I am busy.

“Two weeks before the crime, he knocked at my company’s door at around 5.15pm while I was alone. I opened the door and I saw him standing at the doorstep. He asked me again why I had not called him. I repeated the same answer that I am busy. He then told me that he had returned from leave and he had a massage device and is willing to explain to me how it worked.

“I asked him to have a seat on a chair while I sat on the sofa. He started explaining but suddenly he grabbed my arm, telling me that muscles should be for effective relaxation,” the victim testified.

At this point, the victim asked the man to stay away from her and said she did not want a massage Instead, he pushed her to back to the sofa and sat on her. All her attempts to prevent him from raping her was in vain as he was very heavy and had gained control over her. When he got up to take off his trousers as he was unable to do intercourse, the victim ran outside the office.

“I knocked at a company’s door and asked for help, the office attendant asked me to seek help from the security. I turned around and rushed into an office as the door was open. I closed the door behind me and stayed there for five minutes before opening the door again and going down to the security officer at the reception.  The officer took me to the camera control room and called her senior who came and caught the accused who was about to leave the building,” the victim testified.

SN, accountant, was rushed down to the camera control room and while trying to understand the woman’s problem, the victim saw her attacker walking towards the building’s entrance. So she asked her and the security officer to catch him as he was the one who had attacked her.

The security officer caught the accused. When the security officer confronted him, he denied the accusation and said that the woman is lying. When she heard this, she rushed out of the camera control room and threw at him a bottle of water that was given to her to help calm her down.  “How dare you do that?” she shouted at her attacker.
 
The victim was asked to go up to the accountant’s office where she informed her husband and the police. The victim was in a state of shock and was unable to talk to the police when they arrived.

Reviewing footage of the camera on the same floor, the accused was seen running after the woman and pulling her hand but she managed to escape  from him, according to the records.

HH was accused of defilement under duress awhich he denied when he first appeared before the Court.