Dubai: A worker has been jailed for six months for robbing a visitor of her purse just after she had stepped out off a taxi.
The 45-year-old Pakistani worker, N.A., and his accomplice, who is still at large, were accused of waylaying the Nigerian visitor in December. Records stated that the woman was carrying Dh12,000 and a mobile phone in her purse at the time.
The absconding suspect managed to flee the scene with the purse even as the woman fought off N.A. and restrained him with the help an eyewitness until the police arrived.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted N.A. of robbing the woman.
The accused had entered a not-guilty plea contending that it was the other man who made a getaway who was to blame for the incident.
Presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat ordered that N.A. be deported after serving his jail sentence.
The Nigerian said she was set upon soon after she stepped out of the taxi in Al Baraha area.
“I got down in front of the building where I was staying. Two strangers walked up beside me; when N.A. asked me to give him my money, I asked him what money and told him that I do not know him. To my shock, he snatched my purse but when I tried to stop him the other suspect took it and ran away. I restrained the defendant until the police came and arrested him,” she testified.
A Nigerian eyewitness said he helped the woman pin down the defendant until the police arrived.
“I was in my flat when I heard a woman screaming at men in the street. When I looked from the window, I spotted two men [the suspects] pulling away the woman’s purse. I rushed down to the street to help her; when I reached downstairs, the woman had already been fighting with the suspect who got arrested,” he said.
Thursday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
