Dubai: Two policemen have been jailed for one year each for abusing their authority, abducting a driver in a police car and robbing Dh2,500 from him.
The Dubai Court of First Instance found the Emirati policemen, 19-year-old corporal H.E. and 20-year-old first corporal A.M., guilty of power abuse, abduction and theft.
The defendants had earlier pleaded not guilty and denied abusing their authority, kidnapping the 23-year-old Indian driver in a police car and taking his money.
An Emirati police first lieutenant testified during questioning that a number of vegetable and fish vendors had complained they were being robbed by policemen on duty in their official uniforms and driving a police car in the Al Quoz area.
Prosecutors charged H.E. and A.M. with abusing their authority as law enforcement officers, kidnapping 23-year-old M.R. and stealing his money.
They were also charged with unlawfully questioning and searching M.R., who delivers fish to cafeterias in Al Quoz.
Waiver
Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout handed out a lenient verdict to the convicts who submitted a written waiver that they had obtained from M.R. The first lieutenant testified: "A policeman monitored the patrol [car] which had the plate number that was given to us by a complainant. Initial interrogations exposed that the corporal and the first corporal were the suspects [involved]. The policeman, who was assigned to monitor the defendants, spotted them picking up an Indian vendor and stalked them for a while before he lost their track."
The 40-year-old policeman stated: "Upon the first lieutenant's instructions, I monitored the area for two days in search of the suspects whom I spotted on the third day ... I saw them picking up a vegetable vendor, then M.R., before they dropped them shortly after that. When I lost their track, I informed the first lieutenant who arranged for their arrest."
Prosecution records said the first lieutenant spotted the two accused in another place and questioned them. "Then one of them admitted that they had been picking up vendors and stealing their money," added the first lieutenant.
