UAE | Crime
Police describe dramatic Wafi mall robbery
The events of the Wafi jewellery robbery on April 15, 2007, are still unfolding in court, exactly one year after the daring heist
- By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:15 April 17, 2008
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
- Security cameras show the cars of the robbers parked next to the Graff jewellery store during the robbery at Wafi Mall.
Dubai: The events of the Wafi jewellery robbery on April 15, 2007, are still unfolding in court, exactly one year after the daring heist.
Police said in their testimony on Wednesday that two cars, one black and one white, both stolen, raced through the front gate of Wafi Mall. One car smashed into the window of the Graff jewellery store, men in black clothes and masks then burst into the store and stole jewellery worth Dh14.7 million. They drove off to the Za'abeel area where the cars were found abandoned.
Later Dubai police announced the arrest of two suspects in the UAE. The stolen jewellery was recovered and returned to the owner.
The Dubai Court of First Instance has listened to 19 prosecution witnesses already.
The last prosecution witness has been summoned to testify when the court reconvenes next week, lawyer Ali Abdullah Al Shamsi who is defending a 33-year-old Serbian suspect, N.M., told Gulf News outside chamber 4 on Wednesday.
In Wednesday's hearing, a policeman testified before Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir that he monitored the car in which the reportedly stolen pieces of jewellery were found until one suspect showed up.
"One of the suspects is detained at the Al Rifaa police station and the other is at Port Rashid detention centre. We have one more prosecution witness to go before we hand in our defence," said Al Shamsi.
The Public Prosecution charged N.M. with aiding and abetting an unidentified number of fugitives who stole the jewellery worth Dh14.5 million. His 52-year-old compatriot, M.M., was charged with possessing some of the stolen items.
Both suspects have denied the charges and pleaded not guilty.
At an earlier hearing, Al Shamsi and M.M.'s lawyer, Abdul Rahman Hussain, asked five prosecution witnesses, civilians who reportedly witnessed the alleged robbery, to look closely at the faces of N.M. and M.M. and identify them.
The five could not identify the defendants and said the thieves were wearing masks.
"I didn't see any of their faces because all the thieves had their faces covered with black masks. It happened so fast," a 30-year-old Syrian witness said.
A 29-year-old Filipina also testified that she did not see any faces because the thieves wore masks.
A 22-year-old witness from Benin said: "I heard loud noises ... I thought it was a fire ... I couldn't see the faces of any of the robbers."
A 32-year-old Syrian and a 20-year-old Emirati witness also testified the suspects they saw were all masked.
The remainder of the prosecution witnesses, who were among the police teams who investigated the case, has also testified on the interrogation and arrest procedures.
The court has tried a number of times to ask defence lawyers not to listen to all prosecution witnesses if they hadn't appeared in court yet.
But at one of the hearings Al Shamsi told the judge: "It's essential to listen to all prosecution witnesses to be able to defend my client."
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