india

Updated: Dec 27, 2013 13:02 IST

A Mumbai sessions court on Friday sentenced a man accused of raping a Spanish woman at her Bandra residence on November 2012 to life imprisonment.

Principal judge Shalini Phansalkar Joshi announced the sentence against Mohammad Badshah Ansari.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said that Ansari has been convicted for rape, unnatural sex and house break in and will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

"This judgement proves that India respects the law irrespective of the nationality of the accused or victim,'' Nikam said.

Ansari does have the option of appealing against the order in the high court.

The 27-year-old Spanish national living in the city's upmarket suburb of Bandra (West) was allegedly raped by the man who climbed into her third-floor apartment through an open window in the early hours of November 6.

The next day Mumbai Police arrested Ansari who they said had a history of crime with at least 20 cases registered against him in the city.

The police charged him with rape, robbery, criminal intimidation and trespass in the case.

According to the police, after stealing valuables, including cash and a camera, he allegedly raped her at knife point.

The victim was studying Indian classical music and shared the apartment with a woman photographer from Germany.

She returned to Germany after the incident and works as a music director there. The woman had deposed during the trial through video conference from Berlin.