Dubai: A manager of a gaming shop in International City is accused of kidnapping two Chinese men, after one of them decoded an electronic game inside the premises so he could play for free, a Dubai court heard on Thursday.
The 32-year-old Chinese shop owner and his two countrymen went on trial accused of kidnapping two other Chinese men, assaulting them and threatening to bury them in the desert, while damaging their mobile phones.
According to the Dubai Court of First Instance, in February of last year, police were alerted to the kidnapping in International City.
“The son of the victim called the operations room saying that his father and his friend were kidnapped from a gaming shop,” said a police officer in court records. “A police patrol went to the location and checked the surveillance cameras which showed a group of men dragging two people to a black Bentley.”
Police found the car parked in front of a residential building in the China quarter of International City and saw two defendants walking with one of the victims who showed signs of having been physically assaulted.
“We found the second victim and arrested the third defendant who confessed that they had assaulted the victims in an attempt to reclaim money lost from a gaming machine that had been hacked by one of the victims to allow the gamer to play for free.”
However, the 54-year-old Chinese victim said that he had paid Dh200 to play at the gaming shop when the shop’s owner started assaulting him.
“Two other two men came and assaulted me and when the second victim tried to stop the attack, they assaulted him and broke his phone,” said the victim. “They dragged us to a car and threatened to bury us in the desert,” he added. “I was scared as they stopped near an internet cafe and locked me in a room. They asked me to pay Dh100,000 and I don’t know why.”
The two Chinese men aged 33 and 37, said they were following orders from the shop owner.
The trial has been adjourned until May 16.
