Terrified muggers lock up accomplice in flat

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Three terrified muggers dashed out of an apartment and locked its door while their Asian accomplice was still inside.

The accomplice – an unemployed man, 41 –- was convicted by the Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday and sentenced to one year in jail to be followed by deportation over his role in mugging a Pakistani realtor, 29.

They shoved him down and thrust blows on his eye, nose and head and snatched his wallet, Emirates ID, Pakistan ID, bank card and Dhs1,400. This happened in the Dubai International City on May 3, records showed.

On the record, the realtor was in the city’s Spanish cluster seeking massage services when he came across a massage advertisement card stuck to a car windshield. He picked it up and contacted the provided number.

A lady responded and directed him to an apartment she identified as a massage spa. She welcomed him in. He spotted the defendant sitting on a sofa. He was asking her about costs when the defendant walked out.

She shut the door and massaged him. Thereafter, he opened the door to leave. The defendant and two others stood in his way and slammed the door in his face. He fell down inside the apartment. They shut the door.

They kicked, slapped, punched, restrained and robbed him. His nose bled. They dragged him to the sofa. The two guarded him while the defendant filmed him with his mobile and threated to hand him to the police. The defendant vowed to see him detained and punished because he was massaged and that the practice was a crime. The muggers and the lady dashed out frightened. They locked the door from outside and fled.

The defendant hurried to the apartment’s window calling upon the public for help. “Help me!” he repeatedly shouted. People gathered downstairs. The building’s watchman tried and failed to open the door.

The defendant in a frantic bid to escape, jumped from the apartment’s balcony into the balcony of an adjacent building. Its watchman pinned him down and contacted the police.