Dubai: Two police corporals have been jailed for 18 months each after a court yesterday convicted them of abusing their authority by unlawfully locking vendors in police cars and robbing them.

The Dubai Court of First Instance's Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout incriminated the Emirati defendants, 19-year-old H.E. and 20-year-old A.M., of unlawfully detaining three Bangladeshi vendors and stealing Dh3,730 from them.

Presiding Judge Barghout sentenced each of the defendants to six months for kidnapping each vendor.

H.E. and A.M. had earlier repeatedly denied in court their 12 charges of kidnap, unlawful arrest, abuse of authority and theft.

Innocence plea

Prosecutors accused the defendants of stealing Dh3,730 from the vendors after unlawfully detaining them in public and locking them in police cars. When the charges were levelled against him, H.E. shook his head disapprovingly and said: "I am not guilty… that incident never happened. I never abused my authority in the police force. The claimants didn't sit in the police car."

Meanwhile, A.M. pleaded innocent and contended: "Abuse my authority? What authority? I didn't abuse anything. I didn't commit any crime. Nothing of that happened." According to the arraignment sheet, prosecutors said the defendants posed as law enforcement officers to 21-year-old M.H. in public before they tricked him into riding in their police car and then driving to a location where they stole his Dh230.

Prosecution records said H.E. and A.M. repeated the same modus operandi with two other victims, identified as N.M. and S.C., and stole Dh1,500 and Dh2,000 from them respectively.

Another victim, M.H., testified that the defendants detained him and N.M. when they were selling vegetables to workers in the Al Quoz area.

"They came to us ... in their uniforms…," M.H. claimed. He testified that they were asked to ride in their car and drove off to another area.

"After they searched us they took our money. Before they left we asked them to give us some money for the taxi. They handed us Dh10 and they disappeared... we reported the matter to the nearest police station," M.H. said. The other two Bangladeshi victims confirmed M.H.'s statement during the trial.

Two Emirati policemen who questioned the defendants cited them admitting that they used to detain illegal workers and take their money. They also used to confiscate pornographic movies which they used to reportedly sell to workers in labour accommodations.

Ransom demand: Kidnap gang imprisoned

A court on Tuesday confirmed 15-year jail terms against nine Chinese suspects because they kidnapped an investor for three days and threatened to kill him unless he paid Dh20 million in ransom.

The Dubai Court of Appeals upheld the primary judgment [15 years in jail] after Presiding Judge Mustafa Al Shennawi pronounced the nine Chinese defendants, aged 23-49, guilty of kidnapping a 24-year-old Chinese investor, X.K., and demanding ransom.

Presiding Judge Al Shennawi also upheld the deportation order against the accused. The Dubai Court of First Instance had earlier convicted nine defendants and acquitted a 36-year-old Chinese sales representative, W.F., of plotting the crime. The investor testified that one of the gang members attacked him with a stun gun in International City before others kidnapped him. Records said they were charged with unlawfully detaining him for three days in a flat in Ajman, torturing him and threatening to kill him in case he failed to pay them ransom money.

— B.Z.