Drunk tourist ‘backtracked over Dubai rape claim’

The 26-year-old Austrian woman claimed to police that the Yemeni man had forced himself on her, but told prosecutors that the sex was consensual.

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DUBAI // A tourist who claimed she was raped by a man she met in a nightclub is facing charges of having consensual sex out of wedlock and consuming alcohol.

The 26-year-old Austrian, I A, did not appear at the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours on Thursday, having already left the country.

Previously, she had told police that she was raped by Yemeni, A A, 27, on the back seat of his car. However, when later interrogated by prosecutors, she said the sex had been with her consent.

Court records said that A A had approached I A in a club and asked her to join him at his table. Soon after he suggested they go for a drive in his car.

“Once in the car, I got in the back seat and he jumped in the driver’s seat before he moved back next to me,” police record I A as saying.

“I resisted him at first but then gave in because I was scared, drunk and dizzy.”

She said that after leaving her out on the street alone, she saw some men and asked them to call police.

The police apprehended A A at his residence in Sharjah, while I A was arrested in her hotel for drinking alcohol.

Prosecutors, however, say she changed her story during interrogation, admitting the sex was consensual.

“When we went to his car, A A asked if he can have sex with me because he finds me very attractive to which I said ‘yes’,” she said.

“We had consensual intercourse in the back seat of his car.

“After that I was really depressed because I didn’t want to have sex with anyone besides my Lebanese boyfriend.

“I told him to leave me alone, I got out of the car then he left me and went home,” said I A.

A A was in court on Thursday where he said he had agreed to pay her Dh1,200 for sex.

“When we reached my car, she sat in the back seat and started kissing me while I was in the driver’s seat,” said A A.

“Then we had an intercourse in the back seat. After we finished she received a phone call and told me she had to leave, at which point I gave her Dh500 only, because the agreement was to spend the night with me but she only spent a few hours,” he said, adding that she got angry at him.

A A pleaded not guilty to having consensual intercourse outside wedlock. He was never charged with rape.

I A’s lawyer said she would return to the UAE for the next hearing, which was scheduled for March 6.

salamir@thenational.ae