A man has been accused of raping a woman during a house party in Dubai last year. The emirate's criminal court heard on Monday that the Chinese tourist, 34, assaulted the 22-year-old woman, also from China, in Al Barsha on September 22. In her testimony, the woman said she was at a party being held by the accused and other tenants, who were all drinking alcohol, when he asked her to help clean his room and give him a massage. “When inside his bedroom, he locked the door and attacked me,” she said. He allegedly broke her mobile phone to stop her from calling the police, then ripped her clothes off and raped her. “I screamed for help but no one could hear me because of the loud music and noises in the party.” She told investigators he threatened to beat her up then called in his friends to intimidate her. After the alleged assault, she escaped from his room and called the police. “We arrived at the villa and found the defendant drunk,” said a police officer. The man was arrested and a medical exam found that he had Hepatitis B and syphilis. In court on Monday, the man denied charges of rape, issuing threats and damaging a mobile phone. He told the court the woman fabricated the story to blackmail him. “My client didn’t rape the woman, he had consensual sex with her,” his lawyer, Awatif Khouri, from Al Rowaad Advocates, told the court. “The woman ... willingly accompanied him to his room after agreeing to give him a massage and have sex with him, despite knowing he was drunk. “He fell asleep during the massage and was awoken by one of his friends only after police arrived responding to the woman’s call,” she said. The next hearing is scheduled for February 10.
