Girl traumatised by male attacker in The Gardens, Dubai.

The 12-year-old victim says a man molested her as she went out to dispose garbage.

• Image Credit: GULF NEWS ARCHIVE
• A view of The Gardens. Photo for illustrative purposes only

Dubai: A family has been left traumatised after their 12-year-old daughter claimed she was molested in front of their building in Dubai.

Police are investigating after a complaint by the girl’s father.

The Indian family lives in The Gardens, Jebel Ali, where a similar incident happened in August.

Speaking about Thursday’s incident, the girl’s father said: “It happened at around 11am as my daughter went out to dispose off the garbage in front of the building entrance. She was sexually harassed by a man who was standing near the elevator. My daughter said the man seemed Arab, was around 30-40 years old and fair-skinned with blond hair and a small beard.”

The girl claimed that the man asked her something in Arabic that she did not understand. He put his hand over her mouth, held her against the exit door and pulled down his pants.

When the girl did not return home soon, her mother and elder sister went looking for her.

The father tried to call The Gardens’ security office, but got no response. He then called the police who arrived within minutes.The victim’s father said: “The man must have seen my wife and other daughter approaching the entrance of the building, so he let go of my daughter and ran away. My wife started screaming and I ran out to look for the man, but could not find him.”

“My daughter was scared to death and asked me not to tell the police. She claimed that the man threatened to kill her if she went to the police. My family and neighbours went to Jebel Ali police station and registered a case.”

Fearing for the girl’s safety, the family has decided to move out of The Gardens.

In August, Gulf News reported how a woman warned residents in The Gardens after a man allegedly exposed himself to her.

The man in that incident was described as in his 30’s, almost six feet tall, and fair-skinned.

Security at The Gardens confirmed to Gulf News in August that they had received two other reports about a suspect who matched the description committing indecent acts in front of women.

Dubai Police officials on Sunday confirmed a man has recently been arrested in connection with the three incidents in August.

Lt Colonel Ahmad Humaid Al Merri, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department at Dubai Police, told Gulf News that the police will do their best to find the man.

“This is a very serious matter,” he said.

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UAE rape victims urged to step forward

UAE laws encourage victims to lodge civil lawsuits to claim emotional, mental, medical and financial compensation.

• Image Credit: Supplied
• Highlighting an important fact, Dahi said most Emirati rape victims tend not to attend court proceedings to avoid embarrassment or confrontation with their rapist.

Dubai: In the hours and days after falling prey to brutal sexual assaults, less than half of female victims actually report the crimes to authorities, federal statistics from the United States suggest.

The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network says that, “54 per cent of rapes and sexual assaults are not reported to the police, according to a statistical average of the past five years. Those rapists, of course, never spend a day in prison. Factoring in unreported rapes, only about three per cent of rapists ever serve a day in jail.”

The US statistics are food for thought in other countries around the world where cases of unreported rape incidents may be even higher given conservative social moraes which frown upon victims albeit the crimes committed against their person are of absolutely no fault of their own.

Leading court officials in the UAE are encouraging female rape victims to bring attackers to justice not only in the criminal courts, but increasingly now in civil courts to file for financial compensation for a raft of physical and emotional damages.

Advocate Eisa Bin Haidar said, “I urge rape victims to lodge civil lawsuits and claim compensation. Unfortunately many societies perceive rape victims as suspects and not victims. There are many who believe that women subject themselves to certain situations that lead to them getting raped. I strongly believe that this is not true. When a woman gets raped, this is the worst tormenting ordeal that could affect her emotionally. It’s very scarce to find a rape victim who manages to overcome what is believed to be a lifelong stigma.”

“Although not even all the money in the world would rectify the endless ramifications of the rape, rape victims should always seek civil compensation at least in terms of principle,” he added.Advocate Bin Haidar supports rape victims to lodge civil lawsuits to claim emotional, mental, medical and financial compensation.

According to the civil law, Bin Haidar said a rape victim is entitled to seek emotional compensation for the psychological pain and suffering that followed the incident.

The emotional breakdown, fear of stigma and tendency to isolate themselves is what keeps most rape victims from taking their rapists to civil court, according to advocate Ali Musabbeh Dahi.

“Trauma, feeling of insecurity, disbelief and mistrust are the harshest emotional effects that hit a rape victim. They also tend to detach themselves from the society completely. Those are major reasons that discourage a raped woman from lodging a civil lawsuit. Another reason is the fear of seeing her rapist again during the investigation or litigation process … and especially when the defendants claim to prosecutors or the courts that it was consensual sex,” said Dahi.

Highlighting an important fact, Dahi said most Emirati rape victims tend not to attend court proceedings to avoid embarrassment or confrontation with their rapist.

Meanwhile, some expatriate women leave the country immediately after giving their statement to police or prosecution.

Advocate Dahi strongly encouraged rape victims to take civil action against rapists.

“The main goal of a civil lawsuit is to help a rape victims recover from her emotional and psychological damage. Evidently no amount of money would ever compensate the physical and emotional torment of raped females, and particularly who become women after the attack. But a compensatory amount from a civil lawsuit could help a rape victim rehabilitate herself witha psychiatrist and rebuild her life.”

His fellow counterpart advocate Rashid Tahlak said rape victims do require and deserve compensation.

“The aftermath of rape haunts a female forever and particularly those who hadn’t had relationships before.

The most crucial effect on a rape victim is that she may lose potential husbands. Unfortunately in the Arab world we have this mentality in which men prefer to marry a virgin. If a woman had two queues of husbands-to-be, as soon as those men realize that she is a rape victim, the two becomes half a queue if not nil,” stressed Tahlak.

As per the UAE Civil Law, Tahlak said, a rape victim is entitled to seek financial compensation for loss of potential gains [such as husbands] and incurred damages.

“Regrettably there is an unfortunate mentality among several communities that denounce raped females and accuse them of subjecting themselves to such encounters. A raped woman is a victim and the society should not perceive them with contempt,” concluded Tahlak.

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Lenient Sentence For Young Man Convicted Of Smuggling 3.1kg Heroin

A court dealt leniently with a passenger convicted of smuggling 3.1 kilograms of heroin when it reduced his prison 
sentence to a year in jail in view of his young age.

Dubai: A court dealt leniently with a passenger convicted of smuggling 3.1 kilograms of heroin when it reduced his prison sentence to a year in jail in view of his young age [under 21].

The Dubai Court of First Instance ordered that the Pakistani defendant, M.A., be jailed for one year and fined him Dh50,000 for possessing the narcotics which he was attempting to smuggle to Bangkok via Dubai International Airport's transit section. Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad ordered that the accused be deported after serving his term.

Confession

"Yes I am guilty. I brought the heroin from someone in Pakistan and I was taking it, via transit, to Bangkok," M.A. admitted.

Presiding Judge Abdul Jawad had earlier requested the Public Prosecution to provide an official personal identification document confirming M.A.'s age. He turned out to be under 21.

According to the Criminal Procedures Law and Penal Code, a judge has the discretion to consider a suspect's young age [below 21 years] as a factor for leniency.

Smuggling Drugs is alright, the actual crime is bouncing a cheque. The UAE clearly has no justice system, or they simply lack understanding and common sense.

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Teen Accused Of Attempted Murder

18-year-old Emirati has been accused of attempted murder after he allegedly grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his 21-year-old brother following an argument.

"He rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and came and stabbed me"

Dubai: An 18-year-old Emirati has been accused of attempted murder after he allegedly grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his 21-year-old brother following an argument.

The Family and Juveniles Prosecution charged suspect, H.M., with premeditatedly trying to kill A.M. The Dubai Court of First Instance's Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout adjourned the case yesterday, ordering H.M., who failed to appear, to attend next month's hearing.

"My brother and I had a misunderstanding. He rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and came and stabbed me. He took me by surprise and stabbed me on the right side of my stomach and the left side of my chest," A.M. told the prosecution.

Swift medical intervention allegedly saved A.M.'s life, the court heard.

A policeman testified that he played a role detaining the defendant. "During questioning, he admitted that he stabbed his brother," he claimed.

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Dubai rape attack on British Girl, Aged only 10

A TEN-year-old British girl was snatched by two sex fiends who tried to rape her in 
Dubai.

She had gone to look for mice in a sandy play area close to her parents' home in the Arab emirate.

One man grabbed her from behind as a second attacker tried to pull down her pants and kissed her mouth.

But the brave girl fought back, kicking out and screaming at the evil pair until she broke free and ran off. She was missing from her frantic family for more than two hours before she was found, traumatised and in tears.

Bangladeshi Abdul Aziz, 27, has been charged with attempted rape and has appeared in court in Dubai.

Aziz is said to have admitted to police that he and another man saw the girl on her bike.

He is said to have told officers he stopped her, then tried to undress her for sex but she escaped after struggling violently.

Police said the second suspect was still at large.

The girl's father - a British company manager - dashed home after being called at work by his anxious wife.

The dad rushed back and began scouring the neighbourhood with his wife and helpers.

The girl was found at 6pm in the evening in January, shocked and weeping, beside a security guard from the luxury complex where the family lives.

A Dubai court source said yesterday: "It was an etremely serious assault - the prosecution say there was clear intent to rape or carry out a serious sexual assault on the girl.

"She was very lucky to escape and very brave to have fought back.

"Her parents were frantic when she disappeared and incredibly relieved when she was found."

The trial was adjourned until a date to be fixed next month.

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Man jumps to death off world's tallest tower in Dubai

May 10 - A man threw himself off the world's tallest building in Dubai, its developer said, plummeting to his death in the first suicide from Burj Khalifa tower.

The man, believed to be in his twenties and of South Asian background, jumped from the 147th floor of the 828-metre (2,717 feet) skyscraper and landed on a terrace on the 108th floor, local daily The National reported, but those details were not confirmed by the building's developer.

Emaar (EMAR.DU) said it had a recorded an "incident involving a male" at its Burj Khalifa site on Tuesday morning.

"The concerned authorities have confirmed that it was a suicide and we are awaiting the final report," the statement said. It gave no further details on the incident.

The man may have worked at a company inside the 160-storey building, the paper said, adding that police said statements showed a holiday he had requested was turned down. 

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Family look to inmates

A website urging former inmates of Bur Dubai Police Station to share their experiences has been launched by the family of a British tourist who died in custody.

The family of Lee Brown, who was found dead in his cell on April 12, have set up the online portal in a bid to gather
testimonies from anyone held at the detention centre.

“We can’t begin to express the effect that Lee’s shocking death has had and the drive that we now have to ensure that the families of others do not have to endure some of the heartache and pain that we have lived through,” his family said in a statement.

Brown’s mother Doris, brother Steve and sister-in-law Susanne are campaigning for a thorough investigation in the UK into his death. They are worried Brown may have been assaulted while in custody. His body was repatriated two weeks ago and UK authorities have ordered a third independent post mortem be carried out following the two conducted by Dubai Public Prosecution and Dubai Police.

The first found no sign of physical injury while the second concluded Brown had suffered a head wound, bruising to his chin and arms and cuts to his hands.

The UAE Attorney General’s office said the head wound occurred when the tourist violently resisted arrest.

Brown was arrested at the Burj Al Arab hotel on April 6 on suspicion of assaulting a chambermaid. He died six days later. His funeral is due to be held tomorrow at the City of London Cemetery.

To visit the website, go to www.justiceforleebrown.org.

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Ambulance...Life Saver or Life Taker ? In Dubai a Life Taker!

"...the ambulance arrived thirty-five minutes after the call had been made. It was too late; the boy had already lost his life..."

Last week one of our readers neighbor’s eleven-month old crawler choked on a clove of garlic that he picked up from the kitchen floor as his mother was busy cooking. The first-aid trained mum first dialed for an ambulance and then thumped the boy as she tried her best to expel the garlic from his windpipe. Unfortunately, the ambulance arrived thirty-five minutes after the call had been made. It was too late; the boy had already lost his life.

Another lady had to experience a similar loss due to the inefficiency of medical services in Dubai. She had a nasty fall on a slippery bathroom floor and called the ambulance as she was unable to move and could not walk to a cab. When the ambulance arrive an hour and a half later, the woman had already lost her baby due to excessive bleeding.

While Dubai boasts of the world’s tallest tower, world’s biggest hotel, biggest mall, fastest cars, it has the slowest ambulances. ’Our slow information system is to blame,’ says the manager at a renowned hospital in Dubai. ‘When we get a call, we start locating our vehicles and contacting the drivers and the paramedics and at least ten minutes lapse doing just that,’ she says, which is a considerable amount of time in a state of emergency. One lady who called up a government hospital was flatly refused. ‘The staff member who took the call said they cannot send an ambulance as the bed space is overcrowded.’ While its busy making the ’biggest’ of everything in its bid to be a global phenomenon, it’s time Dubai started thinking of the biggest and best emergency services too before so many more lives are lost.

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EXCLUSIVE! 'I shared a cell with Lee Bradley Brown'

• Image Credit: XPRESS/Abdel-Krim Kallouche
• Lieutenant Colonel Ali Ahmed Abdalla Ghanin, present to Xpress the new facilities in the Bur Dubai Police Station.

Dubai: A European who briefly shared a prison cell with Lee Bradley Brown told XPRESS how the visiting Briton begged him for help just days before he died in police custody.

The man described Brown's condition as "terrible" but clarified he did not see him being beaten, contradicting British media reports that Brown was tortured by the police.

"I saw him bleeding. He had bruises on his face, shoulder and arms when he asked me for help," said the man who was released from Bur Dubai police station lock-up shortly after Brown's death. "He kept saying: ‘Please help me, please help me'."

"I did not see him being beaten … he did not die in front of me."

XPRESS confirmed the man was in Bur Dubai police station lock-up at the same time as Brown but, honouring his request, will not disclose his name, nationality or the reason for his detention.

"Brown was half naked with both his hands and legs in cuffs. He wore nothing on top … and no shoes… his pants were hanging well below the waist."

"I saw him being served a meal of rice with a piece of chicken and laban (a yoghurt drink). But the food was untouched for two days. I don't know why he didn't eat it... I asked the police to check on him."

The man said the next time he saw Brown was when his body was being taken out in a bag.

"I don't know what happened. [Brown] did not say anything to me in this regard," he said, adding that he had no clue why the Briton came to Dubai or what had transpired at Burj Al Arab.

The European, however, claimed Brown told another inmate that he came to Dubai on someone's invitation. "I believe he never told anyone who that ‘someone' was, he said."

On Monday, the European met Brown's brother and sister-in-law who flew to Dubai to take possession of his body.

"From the very outset, we have been pressing the Dubai authorities for a full investigation into the death of Lee Brown. We are in regular contact with his family and have conveyed their wishes on next steps to the Dubai authorities, and will continue to do so. His family have asked for their privacy to be respected at this very difficult time," said a spokesperson of the British Embassy in an e-mail statement to XPRESS.

A self-employed maintenance worker from Ilford, Essex in East England, Brown, 39, was arrested from the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel after being accused of physically and verbally abusing a female staff member on April 6.

He was taken to Bur Dubai police station where he died on April 12, sparking allegations that he was beaten to death.

Public prosecutors who heard the testimonies of the police said Brown was injured when he banged his head against a wall and tried to throw himself from the hotel's balcony while resisting arrest. Police officers also testified that Brown continued to beat on the metal mesh barrier in the patrol car while he was being driven to the police station.

Essam Al Humaidan, Dubai Attorney-General, said the forensic report showed bruises on Brown's forehead, nose and inner right arm. There were minor injuries below his chin, his sole and his right eyebrow. More abrasions were found on the back of his hands and fingers.

Al Humaidan said the abrasions, four to five days old, were consistent with the witnesses' testimonies and that they were sustained during the "violent resistance" or due to friction from the handcuffs. These injuries were minor and had nothing to do with Brown's cause of death.

He said the report showed that Brown did not suffer from any illness either and that he choked to death on his own vomit.

Earlier, Dubai Police Chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim refuted reports saying Brown was tortured. "I am sure that no one used force against the tourist who was in police custody," he told Gulf News.

Public prosecutors also heard the testimony of the Nepalese hotel chambermaid in which she claimed she went to a room for housekeeping on April 6 when Brown abused her and tried to throw her off the balcony.

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