DUBAI // A policeman’s five-year sentence for luring a woman into a car before taking her to an abandoned house and raping her has been doubled by Dubai Court of Appeal.

Emirati officer S A, 28, denied charges of rape and physical assault at both criminal and appeal courts.

On September 14 last year he offered a lift to R P, whose age and nationality were not available.

“I got into the car with him when I knew he was a police officer,” said the woman in records.

The officer then took her to the abandoned house, where he threatened her, assaulted her and then raped her despite her resistance and screams.

The officer was charged with rape and also with carrying out a task that he was not assigned to by his employer, namely stopping the woman and asking her for identification as a means to then rape her.

He told judges in February that the accusations were false and he would not do anything to jeopardise his career.

“I graduated from police academy four months ago with honours and just joined the police recently. I have an old mother that I care for, I didn’t do this,” he said.

However, he was convicted and sentenced to five years by the criminal court.

Prosecutors appealed the verdict, seeking a tougher one, and the appeals court agreed, handing him a 10-year sentence.

It was not clear in court records how the matter had been reported to police but the woman and the clothes that she was wearing were forensically tested.

The lab report confirmed she had sexual intercourse and DNA matching the defendant was found on her clothes and body.

He was arrested on October 13 last year.

The sentence can be appealed within 15 days.

salamir@thenational.ae