Dubai: An investor, who claims to be a consul general of an African country, and a salesman have been accused of kidnapping a businessman and stealing Dh2 million from him through cheques.
The Chinese investor and a salesman from his country were accused of kidnapping a Chinese businessman, blindfolded him and forced him into a car in October last year.
The duo took the businessman to a room where he was confined, threatened, assaulted and tortured by a taser gun and forced to sign four cheques worth Dh2 million.
When the investor appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance, he pleaded not guilty, and told the three-member bench that he is the consul general of an African country in Dubai.
His lawyers asked the presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi to adjourn the hearing of the case until they produce the investor’s diplomatic passport in the court and review the file of the case.
The salesman also pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors accused the Chinese duo and a third suspect, who remains at large, of using violence against the businessman.
The businessman told prosecutors that the suspects kidnapped him from a parking lot of International City’s China Cluster.
“I had gone to deliver some goods to a client when someone pulled me out of my car, blindfolded me and forced me into another car. They drove me around for 30 minutes until they stopped and moved me into a room … I could not establish whether it was a hotel or a house.
“They asked me to call my wife in China and ask her to send Dh2 million through bank transfer. In the meantime, they assaulted me and used a taser gun on me. They also pointed a knife in my face.
“When I called my wife, one of them took away the phone from me and told her ‘they will chop my arm and send it to her if she did not transfer the money to a bank account in China’. My wife got worried and transferred Dh430,000 to that account. Then they forced me to sign four cheques worth around Dh2 million.
“The assailants blindfolded me again and took me back to my car … they also stole Dh5,000 from my wallet.
“I told police at the time of registration of my complaint that I suspected that the investor can be behind my kidnapping," the businessman told prosecutors.
A police lieutenant testified to prosecutors that the victim’s wife informed them over the phone that her husband had been kidnapped and was forced to sign cheques by the alleged kidnappers.
“Primary interrogation by police revealed that three suspects had been involved in the kidnapping. We apprehended the investor near his house in Jumeira. The salesman was detained at the airport shortly before he was to leave the country … and a third suspect remains at large. The salesman claimed during interrogation that the investor asked him to kidnap the businessman because he owed him money. He also alleged that they confined the businessman in a hotel in Jumeir,” the police official told prosecutors.
