Dubai: A visitor was sentenced to three years in jail for beating and torturing a civil engineer in his apartment over a suspected act of revenge for missing an investment opportunity worth Dh368 million.

The 50-year-old Irish visitor, L.U., and three Afghan suspects [who remain at large] locked up the Afghan engineer inside his home where they beat and tortured him before stealing his money in May.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted L.U. and the Afghans, A.Q., M.A. and G.H., of beating and assaulting the engineer and torturing him with a taser gun.

They were also found guilty of wrapping tape around his arms and legs, blindfolding and muzzling him, and then torturing him. Records said the victim was locked inside a walk-in closet.

Presiding judge sentenced the Afghan runaways in absentia to three years in jail each.

L.U. entered a not guilty plea.

According to Wednesday’s ruling, the engineer’s civil lawsuit has been referred to the Dubai Civil Court.

Prosecutors charged the four with illegal confinement, theft and trespassing into the engineer’s flat.

A police officer said the Irishman was arrested at the airport before he could leave the country.

“The Afghan engineer reported us that he had been beaten, tortured, tied and locked up in a closet. He said shortly after he freed himself from the closet, he bumped into L.U. in his flat. The Irishman was detained at the airport. During questioning, the latter claimed that he and the runaways assaulted and confined the engineer in an act of revenge. L.U. claimed that he decided to teach the engineer a lesson because he made him miss an investment opportunity worth $100 million (Dh368 million) in a project in Bahrain,” the officer claimed.

The Afghan victim told prosecutors that he was in his washroom when he spotted the defendants in his flat, where they assaulted, tortured and beat him before taking Dh11,300 from him.

L.U.’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days. Meanwhile, the Afghans are entitled to a retrial because they were sentenced in absentia.