Court orders release of passport to Lankan witness

The Dubai Criminal Court has ordered the release of the passport of a Sri Lankan witness in the case of rape of a French girl on humanitarian grounds.

The witness, NW, 33, an employee at a private company which offers cleaning services, used to do cleaning work in the house of AA, one of the two Emiratis accused of raping the French girl.

“AA used to call me and ask me to come whenever he wanted some work done in his house. On the day of the crime, AA asked me to come and clean the house. After I finishing cleaning, police raided the house and questioned me,” the witness testified.

NW started crying the moment he stood before Presiding Judge Maher Salamah Al Mahdi.

The two accused AI, 23, and SS, 34, both Emiratis, were called and stood in the dock.

The judge suspected that the witness could have been scared by any of the two accused and he asked him if that was the case. NW replied in the negative. The judge asked him to calm down and to make his testimony and to answer his questions.

When the judge finished his questions, he asked the witness again why he had wept at the beginning of his testimony.

The witness started crying again and then uttered words that the translator could not understand and so the translator asked him to repeat what he was saying.

 At this point, the judge started laughing and blamed himself for reminding the witness of the reason that had made him cry earlier.

The witness, who speaks only his mother tongue, could not explain himself to the judge. However, the witness told the judge that his father has died.

The judge then recited a verse from the Quran to console him and asked him to pray for his father.

The witness told the judge that his child had a surgery and started weeping.

It took the witness about five minutes to let the judge come to know that his passport had been seized because of the case and that he was crying because he was unable was unable to travel home.

Sympathising with the witness, the judge ordered the release of his passport provided it was not seized for any other case or complaint. (Emirates 24/7)