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Dubai: Three suspects, including one with Aids, are standing trial for tricking a French teenager into their vehicle, driving off to the desert and gang-raping him at knifepoint.
The 15-year-old boy claimed that one of the suspects snatched his cell-phone away from him when he dialled 999 shortly before he was raped.
The 35-year-old Aids patient, A.K., an Emirati and his 18-year-old unemployed compatriot, I.M., denied their charges before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.
The Public Prosecution charged A.K., I.M. and their teenage associate, I.S., also an Emirati with deceiving the 15-year-old student, A.R., and his 16-year-old friend, F.K., by offering to drive them home.
The three were charged with forcefully undressing the victim, threatening him with a knife and stick before raping him. A.K was solely charged with threatening to kill the victim with the stick.
The French boys' lawyer Samir Jaafar, of Jaafar, A'alwan and Al Jaziri and Co Advocates and Legal Consultants is claiming Dh20,500 in temporary compensation which the suspects have been asked to pay jointly. I.S. has been referred to the Juveniles' Court. Medical reports confirmed that A.K. has Aids.
Testimony
The 15-year-old testified that he coincidently met I.S. while leaving a mall. "He offered to drop my friend and I home. Fifteen minutes later the other suspects joined us in the car ... I.S. who carried a pocketknife asked me to step out of the car, but I refused. They took away our phones and switched them off when I called 999.
"I.S. threatened to rape my mother, burn my parents and our house meanwhile I.K. pulled my friend out of the car powerfully." The victim added, in his statement, that he was beaten, forced to remove his clothes before the defendants raped him successively.
F.K. confirmed the victim's testimony and said, in his statement, he was kept ten metres away from the car and the suspects watched him one at time during the rape.
"When I returned to the vehicle, my friend looked petrified and was quivering. I saw him carrying his underwear in a small bag. The car got stuck in the sand before the relative of one of the suspects came and pulled us out," said F.K.
'Everyone's rights are protected'
The Attorney General in Dubai Essam Eisa Al Humaidan told Gulf News yesterday: "All victims, locals or expatriates, are treated equally and without any favouritism or influence. This is a common case which we constantly face. We confirm to all the residents, nationals and expatriates, that everyone's rights are protected in our society... no matter how minor or major the crime which is committed against him/her was."
Al Humaidan stressed that the Public Prosecution persistently seeks for the court to apply the toughest punishments possible against any criminal who commits any sort of crime.
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