Dubai: A worker has been jailed for six months for beating his cousin and collaborating with two others to kidnap him and ask for Dh10,000 ransom to have him released.
The 23-year-old Bangladeshi worker, S.M., his 36-year-old countryman electrician, M.M. and a 65-year-old Pakistani driver, A.S., were said to have forced S.M.’s cousin into their car and confined him in a farm in September.
The Dubai Court of First Instance jailed S.M. and M.M. for six months for confining the cousin in a farm in Marmoom and refused to release him until his family paid a Dh10,000 ransom.
According to the primary ruling, A.S. was acquitted of kidnap for lack of evidence.
The defendants pleaded not guilty when they appeared in court.
“I am just a driver. I did not kidnap or participate in this incident. I have been living here for 47 years and have never committed a crime,” A.S. told the court.
“I swear to God I did not kidnap him,” S.M. claimed when he denied kidnapping his cousin.
The Bangladeshi convicts will be deported after serving their punishment.
The victim testified that the incident happened shortly after his cousin [S.M.] phoned him and asked to meet him.
“When I went to meet him, the defendants forced me into a car that A.S. was driving. They took me to a farm where they locked me up. They asked me to call my family in Bangladesh and asked them to send me Dh10,000 to have me released. They tied my hands and legs. My cousin beat me and then he asked me to give him his aunt’s [my mother] number … then he called her and asked for ransom. The next day they moved me to a site under construction in Jumeirah,” he testified.
Records said the victim’s mother called her other nephew in Abu Dhabi and told him what happened before the latter reported the matter to the police.
A policeman said the second cousin helped them in communicating with the defendants before they raided the site and released the victim.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 12 days.
