Dubai: Two jobless men have been accused of luring two workers into their car after posing as policemen, beating them and stealing their Dh3,900.
A 26-year-old Emirati, A.M., and his 23-year-old friend, O.H., from Comoros Islands, were said to have kidnapped the Bangladeshi workers from the street and stolen their money after beating them in March 2015.
Prosecutors accused A.M. and O.H. of kidnap, assault, theft and impersonation.
The duo entered a not guilty plea when they showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.
“We did not do any of that,” A.M. told presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat said.
The defendants are in custody.
According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the suspects posed as policemen and lured the workers into their car. Then they threatened them with scissors and stole their money.
One of the workers, a farmer, claimed to prosecutors that he was standing at the side of the road at 12.30pm when the suspects stopped them and claimed to be from the police.
“The defendants said CID… Then they asked us to sit in their car and asked us for personal identification documents. We sat in the back seat… one of the suspects drove the car around in Dubai International City. Suddenly the other suspect took out scissors from the glove box and turned towards us. He threatened to harm us with the scissors and shouted ‘money… money’ [in Arabic]. When I refused to give him money, he twisted my thumb backwards in a painful way. They stole my Dh200 and took Dh3,700 from my friend’s wallet,” the farmer testified.
Records said the workers informed the police what happened.
The other worker claimed to prosecutors that police called them three days after the incident to identify the defendants at the police line up.
Presiding judge Abdul Lat said the court will appoint two lawyers to defend the suspects when it reconvenes on June 18.
