Dubai: Two men have been accused of posing as policemen and kidnapping a young tourist before making off with her and passport and some money.
The 19-year-old tourist was said to be walking to her residence in February when a black car stopped in front of her on the street, a court heard on Sunday.
The driver of the car rolled down the window and introduced himself as a policeman to the tourist before asking for her personal identification papers at 8am, records stated.
The man who was in the passenger’s seat then stepped out of the car and took the woman’s passport before telling her there was a problem and she would have to accompany them to the police station.
When the tourist grew suspicious and asked the duo to present their police IDs, the driver too stepped out of the car and both men forced her into the car and drove off.
The tourist, an Ukrainian, was believed to have been assaulted and her money taken from her, records said.
When the two men stopped in a parking area apparently to get the woman into another car, she managed to open the door and run away, records stated.
Pedestrians who saw the 19-year-old running through the street, called the police.
Primary interrogations led to the arrest of the two men, a 28-year-old Iranian man and a 41-year-old Emirati sailor.
Prosecutors accused the suspects of kidnapping the tourist, impersonating policemen and snatching the Ukrainian’s passport and Dh100 she was carrying.
The suspects pleaded not guilty and strongly denied the accusations when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
The Ukrainian tourist testified to prosecutors that the car pulled over suddenly in front of her in the street. “One suspect told me that he is from the police and asked to see my passport; I took out my passport and gave it to them. I was told that I had a problem and had to accompany them to the police station. When I asked them to show me their police IDs, they refused and pushed me forcibly into the car. They drove off and the suspect who sat beside me in the back seat grabbed me from my neck to prevent me from calling for help. They also closed the windows and they kept driving until they stopped in an unpopulated area. The driver asked his accomplice to move me to another car that was parked nearby; while he was moving to the other side, I opened the door and ran away quickly. I stopped the nearest pedestrian and asked him to call the police,” she told prosecutors.
A police lieutenant testified that the suspects were identified from the description of the car that they used to commit the alleged crime.
The court will appoint a lawyer to defend the suspects when it reconvenes on May 20.
