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Dubai Police solve eight-year-old rape case

Biological evidence at the crime scene helped nab the culprit.

The Dubai Police has revealed the identity of the perpetrator of a rape and sexual violence case against an Arab woman eight years ago. The police have been able to achieve a breakthrough in the case due to the advances in DNA technology.
Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, hailed the efforts and professionalism of the General Department of Forensics and Criminology to uncover mystery cases and solve crimes with scientific evidence and proof, emphasising that the department has a team of experts and professionals in criminal science armed with state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment.
Reopening the case
The Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, Major General Expert Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, pointed out that it is not the first time for the highly qualified Dubai Police professionals to solve cases registered against anonymous, even if after some years later.
Al Mansouri said that Dubai Police has an assessment mechanism to accurately review details of all cases through the electronic criminal record, which records the total number of criminal reports and re-analyse them.
He added that Dubai Police would never close cases registered against anonymous, and stressed that such cases remain open until identifying and punishing the perpetrators, even after many years.

Al Mansouri further explained that despite the fact it has been about eight years since the crime was committed, Dubai Police neither closed the case nor stopped searching for the accused. He noted that the culprit was not identified due to the
lack of sufficient evidence to identify him, but he left behind some biological evidence at the crime scene, and accordingly, it was uploaded from the crime scene and preserved until more evidence would come to the surface.
Major Dr. Expert Rashed Alghafri, Head of Biology and DNA Section at the General Department of Forensics and Criminology at Dubai Police, pointed out that Dubai police received a crime report eight years ago regarding an Arabic woman raped by an unidentified person in the jurisdiction of the Al Raffa Police Station. After research and investigation, the perpetrator was not identified and the case had been registered against anonymous as no sufficient evidence was available.
"Nevertheless, Dubai Police did not lose sight of the case during those years, so Forensic experts at Dubai Police sought latest developed technologies used in DNA testing to identify the perpetrator, and they matched the available evidence to the DNA of his brother who has a criminal record," Alghafri continued.
"Through utilising DNA technology and conducting further tests, Dubai Police succeeded in identifying the real perpetrator who, however, has already died before being identified", Alghafri added.