A Manhattan jury today convicted a Canadian businessman with ties to the Saudi royal family of raping a woman in his suite at The Plaza hotel after a night of carousing.
Mustapha Ouanes, whose main clients are members of the Saudi monarchy, had insisted any sexual contact between him, the 28-year-old former bartender and her best friend was consensual – and his defense lawyer accused the women of pegging him as a “deep pocket.”
“This was a crime of opportunity — the defendant had a vulnerable, intoxicated woman in his hotel room and sexually assaulted her,” Manhatt an District Attorney Cy Vance said.
Ouanes held his head high and looked toward his wife as he was led out of the courtroom in a suit and handcuffs. The wife had dissolved into tears and muttered to herself in French as the jury verdict was read aloud in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The 60-year-old engineer had been charged with rape after a big boozy night in January 2010 with the two women.
The trio hit a couple of Manhattan bars before returning to The Plaza, where the victim said she woke up “in a total fog” with Ouanes on top of her after she and her friend had passed out in his bed.
“It was the biggest mistake of my life,” the woman testified on the second day of the three-week trial.
The defense contended that the women smoked hash when Ouanes wasn’t in the room and that they weren’t incapacitated when they returned to the Central Park South landmark after 4 a.m.
The victim said she shattered a glass and faced off with Ouanes before hotel security arrived at the room.
She also said her mimosa had been spiked because it tasted “wrong.”
Ouanes will be sentenced March 16.