Dubai, February 10: A top police forensic official called on the people to report sexual assault, immediately as the number of sex crimes increased by 22% in Dubai last year as compared to 2009.
Announcing the statistics, Major Ahmed Mattar Al Muhairi, Director of the General Department of Forensic Medicine of the Dubai Police, said that his department handled 504 sex-related cases last year, when it had only 391 such cases to tackle in 2009.
However, the number of murder cases declined by 32 per cent last year. This drop resulted in a 12 per cent decrease in the number of deaths recorded both in crimes and accidents.
The police recorded 23 murder cases in 2010 as compared to 34 in 2009.
The number of people injured in crimes also declined from 1,986 in 2009 to 1,959 in 2010. Major Al Muhairi called on the public to inform the police about rape cases, especially rape of children immediately so that the police could arrest the criminals fast and gather evidence, and thus protect other children.
He particularly mentioned a case in which a family informed the police about the rape of their child only two months after the incident.
When the experts conducted the tests, no clinching evidence could be found and the suspect was acquitted.
In this case, the child lost his right because of the delay in informing the police.
He praised the efficiency of forensic experts with the department in solving the mysteries behind these cases and providing the prosecution with the required evidence.
He said that the General Department of Forensic Medicines of the Dubai Police is one of the pioneering departments in the Middle East that has introduced the DNA tests.
Unlike the Dubai department, international laboratories had not been using these tests earlier because they were expensive and needed more efforts. Now, the cost has come down and the results have become more accurate.
He cited the accurate identification of the bodies of the pilot and the assistant pilot who were charred beyond recognition in the cargo plane crash in Dubai as a case in point.
–Agencies–