Clerk raped two women at knifepoint, Dubai court hears

Clerk denies luring two women to his Dubai apartment and threatened to rape them at knifepoint.

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DUBAI // A clerk raped two women at knifepoint after inviting them to his apartment for a late night coffee, a court heard today.

MA, 29, from Egypt, waited until the women had entered his International City apartment before producing a knife and telling them he would call his friends to gang-rape them if the women did not agree to have sex with him, said prosecutors.

Prosecutors told the Criminal Court the man picked the two women up in his car on September 19 after meeting one of them on a social networking site and offering to take them for a coffee.

Instead, he took them to his apartment, telling them they could drink coffee there instead.

"We had coffee then he said he wanted to sleep," said one of the women. But when she and her friend headed to leave the apartment he came after them with a knife. "He waived the knife at me and said that if we didn't both have sex with him, he would call a number of his friends who would gang rape us," said the woman.

Fearing his threat they gave in, but escaped afterwards, while he was having a shower.

A passerby, JJ, from Pakistan, said he saw the two women rushing out of the building at about 2am. "They both looked very scared and one of them grabbed my hand and asked me to take her to her residence, on the way they informed me that someone was threatening them with a knife," the passerby testified.

When he appeared at the Criminal Court, MA, 29, denied a charge of rape. "I have been in custody for seven months your honour and the prosecution have not interrogated me about this charge yet. I even had to call the prosecutor who is handling this case and yet it was in vain. I am not being interrogated so I [have had no chance to] deny all these allegations," he told the court.

Prosecutors claim that one of the women's work ID cards was found at MA's apartment and that he confessed during police investigations.

The case was adjourned to April 1.

salamir@thenational.ae