Duo locked up for burning, robbing salesman

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Two men implicated in stripping and robbing a jewellery salesman after luring him with a massage service will spend one year in jail, a jury ruled.

Both African men -a visitor and his colleague, aged 32- lured the Indian salesman, 36, with the prospect of being massaged by a belle inside a Dubai hotel, prosecutors explained in court on Aug.27 last year.

They and fugitive cohorts opened a Facebook account posing as a beautiful young lady. A fugitive female accomplice corresponded with the salesman and summoned him to a hotel apartment in Marina.

As soon as he entered, male gang members assaulted and tied him up while threatening to kill him. They restrained him and burned him with a hot knife while demanding him to surrender his valuables. They breached his modesty by stripping him. They snatched his HTC-500 mobile, wallet containing Dhs800 and a bank card. They obtained the card’s passcode through torture and withdrew Dhs15, 000. The Criminal Court sentenced both men to one year behind bars after which they will be deported. Prosecutors appealed, on behalf of the victim, seeking a tougher penalty but the Appeals Court upheld it.

In prosecution records, the salesman complained that he was on Facebook when he stumbled on a belle. She befriended him. They exchanged phone numbers and started chatting on Whatsapp.

She offered to massage him for Dhs700. She invited him for a massage session. Upon arrival at the hotel, she summoned him to the apartment upstairs. He rang its bell. An African woman opened for him.

The room was dark. She called him inside. “As soon as I entered she locked the door. Three African men showed up. They snatched my mobile phone, wallet and bank card. They demanded the card’s PIN.

“I refused to disclose it. They undressed me. They heated a knife using a lighter and used it to inflict burns on various parts of my body. Two of them threatened to kill me in case I refused to tell them the PIN.” The victim declined to comply. They checked the mobile’s storage thoroughly and landed on the PIN. They tied his arms and legs. Two of them went and used the card to withdraw Dhs15, 000 from his account.

They returned the card and mobile to him and fled. A forensic report showed the victim sustained injuries in the pelvic area inflicted by the hot knife. Surveillance cameras captured the duo’s faces.

An Emirati warrant officer testified that both convicts and a fugitive woman had rented the apartment using counterfeit documents.