Man accused of raping woman near Abu Dhabi Corniche has conviction overturned

Appeals Court overturns guilty verdict for man accused of raping a woman the Corniche, ruling the sex was consensual.

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ABU DHABI // A man accused of stalking and raping a woman near to the capital's Corniche has had his conviction overturned.

The Appeals Court cleared HK, an Emirati, who was alleged to have posed as a policeman to carry out the attack. It ruled that he had indeed had sex with the woman, but that this was consensual and convicted him to six months in prison on this charge instead.

A Lebanese woman told his original trial that he followed her to her car after she bought a sandwich at a petrol station shortly before midnight and introduced himself as a CID officer. She claimed he then broke into the vehicle and tried to rape her, but stopped when passersby intervened after hearing her screams.

But he said the woman invited him into the car and offered to have sex with him in return for money, and that when he refused to pay she started ripping her clothes and screaming that he was raping her.

The trial heard that a medical exam found traces of the man's DNA on the woman's body, as well as signs that she had resisted. Police also found his slippers and ghutra in her car.

hdajani@thenational.ae