Bootleggers cleared of beating, robbing rival

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Four bootleggers whom a rival bootlegger framed in a robbery case have won a second acquittal at the Dubai Appeals Court.

The Asian defendant, 25, his friend, 28, and the friend’s countrymen (aged 22 and 28) first appeared at the Dubai Criminal Court on Oct.24 on suspicion they mugged the Asian victim near a building in Hamriyah.

They intercepted him claiming they were CID officers. He asked them to show their military cards. They slapped his face, eyes and head and decamped with his Dhs1, 000 cash and a Dhs500 Samsung mobile phone. They denied the two counts of robbery and impersonation. The court cleared them citing uncorroborated evidence. Prosecutors appealed seeking they be punished. The Dubai Appeals Court has upheld their acquittal.

In Al Rifa’a Police Station records, the victim claimed he was near his home at around 6pm when four Asians showed up claiming they were detectives. They slapped him while telling him the slaps were their military cards. They snatched his cash and mobile. The building’s watchman shouted at them and they fled in a getaway car. A medical report showed his nose and right part of his face swelled. He also had multiple facial contusions.

However, the building’s Cameroonian watchman revealed the incident did not happen outside the building but on its second floor. “I was at the reception when I heard a fracas upstairs. Around thirty men were disputing.

“I ordered ten of them who were not staying at the building to leave immediately. I did not see anyone of the men assaulting another and no one came to complain to me that he was assaulted or robbed,” he said. An Emirati corporal testified that the victim contacted police complaining he was robbed near his home. Police stormed the defendants’ apartment, arrested them and seized a huge quantity of alcoholic drinks.

“I asked them the reason they assaulted and robbed the victim. They told me they engaged in a fight with a rival gang the victim belonged to. Thereafter, they came to the victim’s room, beat him and robbed alcoholic drinks from him.

“They argued that they stole alcohol only and that they did not take any money or mobile phone from him as the victim alleged. They revealed they were bootleggers and that the victim was a bootlegger from the rival gang.”

During further police interrogations they explained that they and other accomplices stormed the victim’s room, assaulted him and made off with cartons full of alcoholic drinks.