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British woman arrested in Dubai when she tried to report rape
The New Paper | Tue, Jan 12 2010
On holiday with her fiance, the 23-year-old was locked up after admitting to "illegal drinking" and having sexual intercourse outside marriage.
SHE was raped while on holiday in Dubai but when she reported it, she was arrested instead. The 23-year-old British woman of Pakistani decent, who is said to have accepted her boyfriend’s marriage proposal during a three-day break, admitted to drinking too much alcohol.
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They were celebrating the happy occasion at Dubai Marina's luxurious Address Hotel. The waiter, believed to be Syrian, is then said to have followed her into the toilets and raped her while she was in a state of semi-consciousness. The woman was arrested after admitting to "illegal drinking" outside licensed premises as well as having sexual intercourse outside marriage, reported the Telegraph. She was sharing a hotel room with her fiance who was also charged with the same offences. The couple were thrown in police cells by officers who apparently paid little heed to the rape, reported the Sun.
After being locked up, she told a cellmate she was terrified that the rapist had made her pregnant or had given her a sexually transmitted disease.
She was given access to proper medical checks and a morning-after pill only after an appeal from the British embassy staff. She and her fiance spent several days behind bars before being freed. The cellmate, held for alleged cheque fraud, said: "She's a British girl but a Muslim, so I think they were tougher on her because of that. "She was trying to report the rape but soon realised the policemen were more interested in how often she has sex with her boyfriend. "They even asked if she (had) just normal sex or anything else in bed."
Desperate
Her attacker is believed to have denied raping her. He claimed the woman consented to having sex, but he has also been charged with "illegal sex".
An Address Hotel spokesman told The Sun: "The matter is being investigated by the authorities". A spokesman for the Foreign Office told The Daily Telegraph: "We can confirm two British nationals were arrested in Dubai on 1 Jan. "Our embassy in Dubai is providing consular assistance and we cannot confirm or release further details about the case." The Sun quoted a diplomatic source as saying: “A desperate, distressed rape victim went with her boyfriend to report the attack to police. And both wound up behind bars.
"The police and authorities in Dubai have shamed themselves by yet again displaying a breathtaking lack of compassion and humanity." Dubai has strict rules about sexual intercourse and alcohol. In July 2008, British woman Michelle Palmer was convicted after being caught having drunken sex outside marriage with businessman Vince Acors. They were given three-month suspended jail sentences.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
