Jobless man found not guilty of raping girl, 13, he met at Mall of the Emirates

DUBAI // An unemployed man was found not guilty on Monday of raping a 13-year-old girl he had met at a shopping mall after she had been dropped off there by another man.

In April, the Grade 9 Emirati had been dropped off at the Mall of the Emirates by A A, a man she had met on Twitter. Once at the mall she met 32-year-old K A.

At Dubai Criminal Court, prosecutors had accused K A of taking the girl to his flat and having sex with her. They said the girl had texted A A using her brother’s phone to pick her up on April 9.

The two met then went to his Dubai flat. Once there, A A started receiving messages and calls from the brother’s phone asking him to bring the girl back or he would be reported to police. A A then drove the girl to mall for her to get a taxi back to her Al Khawaneej home.

When she failed to return, her mother filed a missing persons report and provided police with A A’s phone number.

A A was then arrested but told police that he did not do anything with the girl. He said he got scared after receiving messages from the girl’s family.

Through surveillance from the mall’s cameras police found A A’s story to be true. The surveillance also showed the girl getting into a car and leaving with its driver.

Police tracked the driver, K A, using the vehicle’s plate number and then contacted him through the mall’s security, who asked him to visit them.

Records show that it was nearly 1am on April 11 when the defendant, from the Comoros Islands, received the call from the mall. When he arrived, police arrested him.

He confessed that the girl was at his Sharjah flat while she admitted meeting the defendant at the mall while wandering around.

She said she went to a cafe with him and his friends and then on to his flat. It was there where the two had sex several times, something he had denied in court last June.

In the UAE, sex with someone under 14 is considered rape, even if it is consensual.

“In his car he touched and kissed me. Then I remained with him and his friends until 1am that day, talking at a cafe in Jumeirah,” said the girl. “We went to his apartment where we had sweets then watched TV. Then he turned off the lights and had sex with me.”

She said they woke up at dawn and had sex again, then went to sleep. “We woke up, had sex, then ordered lunch.”

That evening, she said, they went back to Mall of the Emirates, where K A bought her some clothes before taking her to Ski Dubai. They then went back to his apartment.

“We started having sex and during that his phone rang many times,” the girl said. “He had to stop and pick up the phone, it was Mall of the Emirates. They told him to come at once, so he went.”

She said shortly after he left she received a call from someone telling her he was K A’s friend and asked her to open the door. “When I opened, it was police,” she said.

A forensics expert confirmed that the girl had recently had sexual relations but could not confirm if it was with K A.

K A was charged with molestation and rape. He confessed to molestation but denied the rape charge. He was given one year in jail to be followed by deportation on the molestation charge, but was acquitted of rape.

salamir@thenational.ae