MANILA, Philippines — A Dubai appellate court has upheld the three-month jail term of a 33-year-old Filipino who was found guilty by a lower court of raping a Filipino housemaid last September, a report said on Wednesday.

Online news site Khaleej Times (www.khaleejtimes.com) said the Dubai Court of Appeals upheld Tuesday the decision of the Criminal Court of First Instance last May 12.

Likewise upheld was the lower court’s order that the Filipino be deported after he completes his jail term.

Court records showed the Filipino lured the victim to his apartment in International City on September 21 last year and raped her.

In an earlier hearing, defense lawyer Nabih Badr had pleaded with the court to acquit his client, saying the victim “went willingly” with him to his apartment.

Badr argued the victim and the Filipino defendant spent time together and had dinner in the defendant’s apartment.

“As per the case papers, after the alleged rape, she asked him to give her a lift to the airport to pick her sister up. How can a woman accompany a man who has just raped her?” Badr asked.

The woman said on that day, she called the defendant to pick her up from her workplace at Arabian Ranches.

She wanted him to drop her at the airport to receive her sister whose plane was to arrive at 9:30 p.m.

On Emirates Road, he stopped at a gas station and offered her a drink after which she felt unable to move and dizzy.

On the way, he told her that there was still time and he wanted to go to his place to have dinner.

At the apartment, they had dinner, after which the defendant lay down on his bed and took off his shirt.

The woman said that when she tried to leave, she found the door locked. She said the defendant then switched off the lights and raped her.

After the incident, they went to the airport and fetched her sister. She was too afraid to tell anyone about what happened at the time.

But the following day, she went with her sister to the police station and lodged the complaint. - GMANews.TV