LAS VEGAS // A 14-year-old boy testified Monday that he was “freaked out” when a Saudi Arabian air force sergeant made sexual advances toward him in a Las Vegas casino on New Year’s Eve, but he couldn’t figure out how to get away before the man sexually assaulted and raped him on a hotel bathroom floor.
The account came Monday, as Mazen Alotaibi, 24, stands trial on nine counts, including kidnapping, sexual assault and lewdness with a child. He’s being held on more than $1.7 million bail and could face life in prison if convicted.
“It felt like I was trapped in a corner,” the boy said about the encounter at Circus Circus, his voice getting so quiet as he recounted details of the incident that attorneys repeatedly told him to speak up. “I was freaked out and I wanted to leave, but I didn’t know what to do.”
The Associated Press is not naming the boy, who was 13 at the time of the alleged crime, because he is a minor.
The boy said he was killing time while waiting for a friend to join him on a doughnut run when he met Alotaibi. The air force sergeant had bloodshot eyes and smelled of marijuana, the teen said, and he ended up following the man to a room on promises of getting pot for himself.
Shortly after, the boy said, Alotaibi offered to pay him money for sex, and he verbally agreed to the offer in hopes of tricking the man and running away before anything happened.
It was in the hotel room that Alotaibi shut the boy up into the bathroom, offering him $150 and then even more before forcing himself on the teen, according to the boy’s account.
The boy said he ran off and reported the rape to hotel security, fearing that he may have contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
Alotaibi’s lawyer, Don Chairez, questioned the boy about why he didn’t bite, scratch or hit the sergeant during the encounter. He also pointed out that the teen has given different stories to different people – he told detectives he’d been dragged into the room, but now says he went willingly.
“I made up part of the story so I wouldn’t get in trouble with my parents” over the marijuana, he explained Monday.
Chairez has argued that Alotaibi, who was in the US for military training, was tired and intoxicated after travelling to Las Vegas from Los Angeles and staying up all night drinking cognac at a strip club. He also was too limited in English and too unfamiliar with US law to waive his right to have a lawyer with him while he answered police questions, the lawyer said.
Alotaibi, sitting handcuffed in a police interview room, never asked for an interpreter and appeared at the beginning of the 70-minute videotaped interview to waive his right to have a lawyer present. He also said he didn’t understand why he was there.
Police reported collecting DNA evidence from a used condom and a soiled towel found in the bathroom. The prosecutor said DNA swabbed from the boy’s neck, ear, chest and other body parts was consistent with two people, including Alotaibi.
Chairez has said the DNA evidence was inconclusive and showed no link to Alotaibi.
* Associated Press
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Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
Hamilton’s 2017
Australia - 2nd; China - 1st; Bahrain - 2nd; Russia - 4th; Spain - 1st; Monaco - 7th; Canada - 1st; Azerbaijan - 5th; Austria - 4th; Britain - 1st; Hungary - 4th; Belgium - 1st; Italy - 1st; Singapore - 1st; Malaysia - 2nd; Japan - 1st; United States - 1st; Mexico - 9th
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Match info
Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace
Man of the match: Cheikhou Kouyate (Crystal Palace)
MATCH INFO
Watford 1 (Deulofeu 80' p)
Chelsea 2 (Abraham 5', Pulisic 55')
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.