DUBAI // A 34-year-old manager was convicted today of raping a woman he met through an online chat.
AA was acquitted of kidnapping the 26-year-old Kazakhstani woman, however. Prosecutors said AA threatened her with a sharp tool, then beat her and raped her three times in her flat.
The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced him to one year in jail for assault and three years in jail for rape — a total sentence of four years.
The two had gotten to know each other in an online chat room and decided to meet in person, records show.
They went to Buddha Bar for dinner, then got drinks at a hotel bar, records show.
About 3.30am they took a taxi to the woman's flat.
"Once we arrived, he expressed his desire to come up with me, but I refused," she told prosecutors. "He got angry and told me that he spent money on me, and then grabbed me by my hand and put what I thought was a knife to my back. I got scared and told him that I have Dh200 on me, which he could take, but he insisted that we went upstairs to find more money."
But once they reached the flat, AA grabbed her hair and dragged her to her room to search for money. She started shouting, but he punched her in the face and head several times. He then bashed her head against the wall, knocking her out, and raped her, reports say.
After his arrest, AA told police the woman had agreed to have sex with him for US$500 (Dh1,800), but he attacked her after the sex got violent.
amustafa@thenational.ae
