Life in prison for engineers who filmed teen's rape

Two engineers were sentenced to life in prison yesterday for kidnapping and raping a teenager in a remote area, and filming it on a mobile phone.

The Emirati engineers, AI, 25, and 26-year-old AS, were found guilty of luring the girl, 18, to the desert under the pretext of loaning her a car. Both then raped her and forced her to perform sex acts on them against her will.

AI used his mobile phone to film AS raping with the woman.

Both denied the charges at a previous hearing at the Dubai Criminal Court in June.

Prosecutors asked the court to impose the death penalty against both defendants.

The victim, from Comoros Islands, said she met AI in an internet chat room and had been in a brief relationship with him before breaking up.

She said she asked AI to help her buy a car but he said he would lend her one of his cars. One day in March he picked her up and drove to Al Aweer where he claimed the car would be. He then asked her to ride with his friend AS to another location to find the car.

Instead they drove into the desert where they took away her mobile, then raped her.

When AI finished, he ordered her to have sex with AS and filmed them during the act. She said that she begged him to stop but they ignored her please.

On their way back to the city, the victim jumped out of the car and sought the help of a group of men nearby, one of whom was a police captain.

She said the defendants then fled. The police captain called police.

salamir@thenational.ae