UAE: Inmate on trial for sexual assault in prison

An Emirati inmate, 23, stood trial on Wednesday in the Court of First Instance accused of sexually assaulting another inmate. He was charged with forced sodomy. An Emirati police lieutenant said that they learnt in April last year that there was an incident of sexual assault on an inmate inside the Central Prison. When giving his testimony to the police, the alleged victim, an Asian, did not want to press charges against the defendant and others but he sought to be put away from them. The victim said that he was alone in his cell when the defendant and three other inmates assaulted him. He was very scared and he let the defendant sexually assault him because they were many and they threatened to beat him up. The lieutenant described the victim as ‘disturbed’ when interrogated. The four accused denied the victim’s allegations. The police seized the clothes he wore that day. He was also transferred to another cell. An Emirati corporal said during the investigation that as he was on duty in the Control Room of the Central Prison he received a call from the victim’s lawyer. The lawyer told him that his client was assaulted by seven or eight men while in his cell. Semen stains were lifted off the victim’s underclothes and it turned out they matched with one type of DNA, the defendant’s.