DUBAI // Two masked men who broke into an apartment and raped two maids were convicted this morning of rape and armed robbery.

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced unemployed Emirati AM, 28, to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors said he dragged one of the women to the bathroom and raped her for 30 minutes.

Fellow Emirati MM, 32, was sentenced to three years. Records said he emptied the handbags of the four women living at the flat and stole all the valuables he could. He then produced a knife and forced another one of the maids into an empty bedroom where he banged her head on the wall before stripping and raping her.

"We heard them screaming," said a flatmate of the two maids who were raped, adding that a third man stood by the door of the apartment to prevent anyone from running outside for help.

The maids woke at about 3am on September 2 last year to find the men inside their apartment in Al Jafiliya. After the attackers fled, the women called police.

Police lieutenant HA, 23, said officers traced the men to a house in Al Qusais.

"He tried to escape arrest by jumping from a window in his house but we arrested him," said the Emirati officer, who added that the rapist said the woman consented to having sex.

Another Emirati police officer, MS, 37, said the second man claimed not to have entered the maid's flat but instead stayed outside while the first man went inside "for about 15 minutes".

Traces of DNA from the first man, AM, were found on one of the raped women. A sample taken from the second woman raped by MM proved insufficient for testing.

Prosecutors said that three mobile phones belonging to the women were found in the possession of one of the men.

Both men were found guilty of rape, armed robbery, assault and trespassing. The third man, the maids said, took part in the robbery has not been apprehended.

salamir@thenational.ae