Dubai: Three people were jailed for six months for luring a tourist by promising him sex with a "blonde woman" before the tourist was assaulted and robbing him.
The jail term was given to the trio — a Nigerian woman and her two compatriots — after they lost their appeal in a Dubai court.
Records show that the three conned the Saudi tourist by using a dating app in August. The victim said the gang gave him the impression he would be having paid sex with a "blonde European woman".
When the tourist saw the pictures on the app, he agreed to meet her in a hotel in Dubai's Mankhool district.
However, when he reached the hotel room, a Nigerian woman greeted him and invited him inside her room.
When he inquired about the "blonde woman" he had chatted with on the dating app, the 22-year-old Nigerian told him the "blonde" would be with him in a minute. The Nigerian went inside the washroom.
A few minutes later, she came out naked and told the man he would be having sex with her instead of the blonde.
When the victim refused to pay the woman, she called her two compatriots, aged 25 and 27, who forced him to strip naked and filmed him with the woman’s phone.
The Nigerian trio also threatened to post his naked photos online if he did not pay them Dh1,000. The tourist ended up giving them Dh1,000. He also left his wristwatch with them.
The three Nigerians were arrested after the victim lodged a complaint with the police.
In October, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the trio for molesting the victim, breaching his privacy by forcing him to get naked and filming him, misusing the telecommunication system by threatening to post his naked images on the internet and robbing him.
The trio appealed against the primary verdict, asking the Appeals Court to acquit them. Presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif rejected the defendants’ appeals and upheld their six-month sentence.
The trio will be deported after serving their jail term, according to the appellate ruling.
The 22-year-old woman admitted that she enticed the tourist to have sex with her before her countrymen filmed him nude.
The male defendants, for their part, denied robbing the victim or threatening him.
A police corporal testified that the Saudi tourist complained that he had been hoodwinked and blackmailed by the defendants.
“He said that he went to the hotel room in Mankhool area to have paid sex with a European woman. He claimed that the trio lied to him and lured him to the room where they made him undress and filmed him. Police raided the hotel and apprehended the male defendants … the 22-year-old woman was found hiding in the hotel,” he said.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.
