A former Dubai Police officer who was accused of raping a woman after he forced her from a taxi under the guise of an alcohol-related stop-and-search has been cleared.
The Jordanian defendant, 23, was instead convicted of having consensual sex with a woman he was not married to and was sentenced to six months in prison.
The court had heard the officer, who quit the force just before his arrest, had been stopping cars in the Al Qusais district when the incident took place in March 2014, though the court was not told why the case took three years to hear.
The court was told that the Moroccan woman, 24, was in a taxi with two of her friends when they saw the defendant stopping cars and searching them in Al Qusais. She said she had been drinking at a club with friends before they were stopped at around 3am.
"We were very close to my apartment when he stopped the taxi, saying he was a CID officer and asked for all of our IDs. Then he said that I have to go with him to the police station because I had been drinking alcohol," said the woman.
She said she got into his car, but instead of taking her to the station, he stopped the vehicle in a sandy patch near her home. "I was scared and started crying. He wiped my tears off, then hugged me so I pushed him and he slapped me before he ripped off my clothes and raped me," she said.
The woman said she didn't go to police right away because she was scared she would be arrested for being drunk; however, a few days later, her friends advised her to approach police and report the incident.
"When she came to the station she was devastated. She was crying and shaking when she narrated what happened. I checked the location she mentioned, it was an empty land plot behind a driving institute," said an Emirati police lieutenant, 43.
The lieutenant apprehended the defendant and questioned him. He said: "He (the ex-policeman) denied raping her and said that she agreed to have sex with him in return for money after he spoke to her when she got out of a taxi. He said she was drunk and got into his car willingly, but she is framing him because when he finished having sex with her, he didn't pay her."
When the accused found out the woman had reported him to police, he resigned from his position in the police and later took a job as an inspector with Dubai Customs.
The court ordered his deportation following the completion of his prison term, but he can appeal the sentence within two weeks.