Dubai: Two brothers have been accused of kidnapping their relative, beating him up brutally and leaving him gagged and tied in a vehicle before police busted them shortly before they could flee Dubai.

The Emirati relative was said to have left his flat for work as early as 4am when the Pakistani brothers, aged 38 and 32, attacked him in the parking lot of the building where he lives in Al Nahda.

The Pakistani brothers allegedly assaulted their relative and fractured his leg with an iron pipe, according to records, before they carried him to the trunk of the car and dropped him in March. He was unconscious by then.

The two men then drove the vehicle to another location and moved him to another car in which they beat him again, gagged his mouth with a tape and tied his hands and legs with a rope and taped him to the passenger’s seat.

Shortly after, the brothers left the injured man confined in his car. An Emirati employee, who was jogging early morning, heard his countryman knocking the car window and door and crying for help before he freed him.

The employee instantly called an ambulance once he noticed that the victim’s leg was broken and he was bleeding from his head and other parts of his body.

He also called the police. Once the police heard the names of the culprits, who had attacked the victim, they swung into action and alerted the authorities at the Dubai International Airport. The brothers were apprehended shortly before they could board flights, one heading to London and the other to Pakistan.

Prosecutors accused the suspects of using force, physical violence and threat when they kidnapped the Emirati and locked him up in the car. They were also charged with threatening to kill him and assaulting him brutally.

The duo refuted the accusations when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday.

Asked by presiding judge Mohammad Jamal if they could afford to hire a lawyer to defend them, they replied in the negative.

The Emirati relative testified to prosecutors that he had just left his residence when the suspects moved in on him.

“They beat me, threatened me, tied me, gagged me and kept me roped inside the vehicle. I heard them saying in the car while driving towards Al Rashidiya that they would kill me and throw my body in the desert and then they would surrender themselves to the police. Then they stopped in a sandy area near a government department, left me tied and gadged and ran away. Sometime later, an Emirati man who happened to be jogging in the neighbourhood saved me. Then I told the police what had happened and how my relatives had assaulted and kidnapped me,” he claimed to prosecutors.

A police lieutenant told prosecutors that the brothers admitted that they had kidnapped and beaten their relative up over a family dispute.

The trial continues.