Dubai: Four officers swarmed woman to end tense bomb threat

DUBAI: After a tense 13-hour standoff negotiating with a disturbed 32-year-old Uzbek woman who threatened to detonate a waist bomb at Dubai Public Prosecution Office, four officers of the Dubai Police bomb team wrestled her to the ground. Their actions ended an ordeal that tested the professionalism, investigative and negotiating skills of police without injury or loss of life.

Shortly after noon on Sunday, Zulfiya Hamraeva walked into the Public Prosecutions Office with two bags and her son, took off her abaya and calmly revealed an apparent bomb around her waist. In her hand was a thumb trigger switch that she threatened to detonate unless officials met her demands.

She wanted a UAE passport for her six-year-old boy at her side.

The boy is illegitimate, and Zulfiya had previously filed a case in another emirate to try to prove that the boy’s father was an Emirati. DNA tests showed that the man was not the father — Zulfiya is disputing the DNA.

Zulfiya’s desperate and illegal actions sparked a security scare that resulted in the Dubai Courts complex being closed and the sealing off of the entire block bordering Dubai Creek and the Floating Bridge in Bur Dubai under a tight security cordon.

Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, acting Chief of Dubai Police, told Gulf News that it’s the first time such an incident of threat has occurred in the emirate. “Dubai Police dealt with the issue in a very professional way and its main interest at all times was to ensure that the woman was dealt with in a professional and compassionate manner to help end her distress,” he said.

Maj Gen Al Mazeina, who headed the negotiations with Zulfiya, said that the standoff lasted for 13 hours because police were trying to end the standoff peacefully and without her or anyone else being harmed.

But Zulfiya came to the complex prepared and riding in a limousine cab. During the standoff, police offered her refreshments. She declined, fearing that they might be drugged. She brought her own food and drink to the building and was determined to have the paternity issue resolved once and for all. She demanded to speak to His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, but that was never going to happen.
While Maj Gen Al Mazeina and his negotiating team worked to resolve the crisis through talking, reassuring and building a rapport with Zulfiya, they were able to glean details of where she lived.

Vital clue

As they talked, police units swooped on an apartment in Sharjah. There they arrested an Emirati man, Zulfiya’s current lover. At the apartment, police discovered a vital clue — electric wiring similar to the type apparently on the woman’s explosive belt. Police used forensic investigation techniques, taking field swabs of surfaces and materials in the apartment, and tested them for explosive residue. The testing found no evidence of explosives.

But the clock at the court house was still ticking and Zulfiya was showing no signs of giving up or lowering her demands for a resolution of the paternity issue. With the forensic checks still going on at the Sharjah apartment and the questioning of her Emirati boyfriend continuing, weary police and security staff at the Dubai Public Prosecution Office were leaving nothing to chance.

There, a police dog used for sniffing out explosives was also used to try to determine whether Zulfiya was calling their bluff. The bomb squad, aided by Dubai Civil Defence and members of the National Security were also on the scene.

Around 1am, police became satisfied that the results of the swabs were clean and did not contain any explosive material — they made the decision to swoop on  Zulfiya. Four officers rushed her, pushing her to the ground.  She is being held in Dubai Police Headquarters.

According to lawyer Rashid Alai, a former senior police official from Sharjah, Zulfiya faces charges of disturbing authority and threatening public safety — offences that carry a three-year sentence followed by deportation if she is convicted. Officials will conduct a mental assessment of Zulfiya. If prosecutors decide there is evidence to warrant more serious charges, she faces up to 15 years behind bars for threatening state security.