DUBAI // The lawyer of an executive manager accused of raping a woman at her apartment turned the tables on the Belarusian in court yesterday, claiming she was a gold-digger hoping to get money from his client in return for not pressing charges.
Said Al Ghilani said at Dubai Criminal Court that his client was the victim – not the other way around.
Egyptian A A, 28, had denied raping the woman who was seen running naked into a lift in her building before police were called.
“This woman and others from her country have been coming here, targeting men and accusing them of rape then asking them for money in return for not reporting them to police,” said Mr Al Ghilani to the judges.
He added that the 28-year-old woman left the UAE on the same day the forensic report ruled that she showed no signs of being raped. The woman has not returned.
“She left so that if he was acquitted, she would not be charged with filing a false report. But in order not to lose her right in any compensation if my client was convicted, she called the prosecution confirming that she will not drop her rights in the case,” said the lawyer.
“He did not rape her, he ran away from her because she was the one trying to rape him, then he locked himself in her bathroom and called police from his own mobile phone, so they would come to free him.”
Mr Al Ghilani also said the Belarusian’s testimonies to police and prosecution were contradictory.
Prosecutors alleged that the executive manager visited the woman’s apartment claiming that he wanted to discuss business with her then raped her on July 17 last year.
In her testimony taken before she fled, the Belarusian woman said she met the defendant online while she was out of the UAE and the two talked about business. She gave him her number in Dubai and agreed to meet him on her return.
“He called me on the morning of the incident and I suggested we meet in a cafe in the Marina area, but he said his work is close to my apartment and it would be easier for him to meet me there,” said the woman.
At 4.30pm, she said the receptionist at her building called her and said a man was there to see her. “I told him to let the man up to my flat,” she said.
The woman said a friend was with her in the flat but the friend left when the executive manager went to the toilet. On his return, she said he sat next to her and started touching her.
“I stopped him but he continued, so I ran to the bedroom to call police but he followed me, grabbed me from my hair then pulled down my trousers and raped me for almost half an hour,” she said.
The woman managed to escape naked to the lift. “When the lift opened, there were two Asian men who did not even move to help me,” she said, adding that the defendant chased her in to the lift.
“I managed to take the lift to the ground floor, where a woman saw me as the door opened up and covered me then called police,” said the Belarusian. “He assaulted me before he left.”
The Indian woman who helped her told the court: “I took the lift in my building and was surprised to see a naked woman and a man yelling at her.
“She was scared and crying as he was screaming at her while two other men in the lift did nothing.”
S S covered the Belarusian and took her to her own flat in the same building before calling police.
Defence lawyer Mr Al Ghilani said CCTV footage from the building showed that the Belarusian was the one chasing the Egyptian man, adding: “She claims that her friend was at the apartment when my client came but this friend denied the story when asked by police and refused to be part of the case.”
A verdict is expected on April 9.
salamir@thenational.ae