Dubai: A couple have been jailed for two years each for luring a merchant to a hotel for a massage session with a white blonde woman, filming him nude, assaulting and robbing him.
The 67-year-old Iranian merchant saw an online advertisement offering massage service by a white blonde masseuse in Deira close to his residence in November 2017.
The merchant called up the advertised number and agreed with a purportedly blonde woman, who asked him to come have a massage at her hotel room in Al Muraqqabat.
When he reached the hotel room, the Iranian was kept waiting for four minutes at the door after he knocked.
As someone opened the door, the room was dark and a female voice invited him to enter the room.
Unaware of what the woman who invited him in looked like, the merchant remained standing at the door when he realised that she was an African.
When he tried to leave, two African men came out from an adjacent room and pulled him inside.
The Nigerian woman and more than three of her countrymen ganged up against the Iranian, beat him up, pulled him into the washroom, stripped him naked, took away his phones, filmed him naked, and stole his money and two bank cards.
Then they tied him with his own clothes, kept him confined in the hotel room and absconded, according to records.
Police checked the surveillance cameras fixed above the ATM machine that the culprits had used to withdraw cash from the merchant’s account.
Police identified a 26-year-old Nigerian man and a 32-year-old Nigerian woman, who remains at large. The man was arrested.
On Thursday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the duo of stealing the merchant’s Dh40,000 in cash and bank cards and stealing his mobile phones and wristwatch.
They were also found guilty of molesting the victim by stripping him naked and filming him on his mobile phone.
According to Thursday’s ruling, the defendants were also convicted of threatening to dishonour the merchant by posting his nude images on the internet if he didn’t provide them with the correct passcodes of his bank cards.
Two or more suspects, who collaborated with the Nigerian couple, remain at large.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the defendant will be deported.
The runaway woman was sentenced in absentia.
The 26-year-old defendant had pleaded not guilty during trial.
The merchant said he was lured to the hotel room for a massage session with a white blonde woman.
“They locked the door instantly and two men came out from another room. I was assaulted and taken into the washroom where I was undressed, insulted, tied up, filmed naked and robbed. I gave them wrong passcodes to my bank cards. The two, who had taken the cards and left the room to withdraw money from my account, called up those who remained with me in the room. I was beaten again and threatened that my nude images would be posted online before I was coerced to give them the right passcodes,” he said.
