Seven months in jail for UAE child rapist

Man who sexually assaulted boy,9, and threatened to behead him is sentenced to seven months in jail.

Powered by automated translation

DUBAI // A man who raped a 9-year-old boy and threatened to chop off his head has been sentenced to seven months in prison.

The Criminal Court sentenced SA, 36, a driver from Afghanistan, to six months for the sexual assault and a further month for assaulting the boy’s father.

The boy was at his father’s cafeteria on March 15 this year when the Afghan, who knew his father, asked him to go to the Fruits and Vegetables market with him.

“He then took me to a deserted area near the Dragon Mart and forcefully pulled my trousers down after I refused to do so,” recalled the boy. The man then raped him, but the boy managed to run away when the man’s phone rang.

“He chased me and when I fell and hurt my knee, he caught me and shoved me in his car where he sprayed red food colouring on my trousers to cover the blood stains.

“He threatened to cut my head off if I told anyone about the attack,” said the boy.

His mother ZJ, 28, recalled her son acting strangely when he returned to the cafeteria.

“I took a nap but when my son returned, he woke me up, and hugged me so tight which surprised me because it was the first time he had done so for a long time and it made me feel something bad had happened,” said the mother.

She saw blood on the back of her son’s trousers. “I asked him about it, he said it was some food colouring powder then he said he fell and hurt his leg but I didn’t believe him and told my husband.”

The boy’s father MJ, 33, spoke to his son and eventually the boy told him he had been raped. The father confronted the rapist and demanded he leave the country, saying they would settle the matter in Afghanistan. Instead, a fight ensued in which the boy’s father was punched.

In addition to the jail term the court fined the rapist Dh1,100 and ordered him to be deported after serving his jail term.

salamir@thenational.ae