Austrian woman gets jail sentence in Dubai sex case
Play
Vienna/Istanbul - An Austrian woman who says she was a rape victim was sentenced, in absentia, to four months in prison by a Dubai court Monday on charges of having sex and drinking alcohol, the Austrian Foreign Ministry reported.
The 29-year-old Austrian student had reported to Dubai police in early December that she was raped by a 27-year-old Yemeni banker in a hotel garage.
The woman had been detained for three days and stripped of her passport before being allowed to return to Austria in January. She has since not returned to the conservative United Arab Emirates.
The man was also handed a two-month sentence for consensual sex on Monday.
The case is similar to that of Norwegian Marte Deborah Dalelv, who was sentenced to one year and four months in prison in 2013 in Dubai for having made a false police report about being raped, for extramarital sex and for drinking alcohol.
Dalelv spent a short time behind bars, but was soon pardoned.
DPA
