Dubai: A court Wednesday cleared two Pakistani men and an Emirati student of stealing 150 pigeons from a loft on a rooftop for lack of strong evidence.
The Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the Pakistanis, 20-year-old M.T. and 24-year-old K.R., and the 18-year-old student, K.A., of climbing up the rooftop, breaking the loft's lock, stealing the pigeons and running away
When the trio appeared in court, they strongly denied their charges and rejected what they described as ‘baseless and unfounded accusation'.
According to the charge sheet, the Pakistanis and K.A. stole the pigeons, which belonged to a 22-year-old Emirati student, at night.
The claimant failed to appear in court despite being summoned several times to give his statement before Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir Fahmi.
"My mother phoned me while I was heading to Al Ain. She informed me that a person was looking over the fence while they were partying in the garden. I rushed back home and went up to the roof… I discovered that the pigeon loft's door was wrecked and the pigeons had disappeared.
"The loft was fixed with concrete from the bottom side and somebody had tried to break it. Police's preliminary investigations exposed that the defendants were involved in the robbery," 22-year-old A.A. claimed to prosecutors.
An Emirati witness, O.A., testified that during a barbeque party the suspects claimed in front of him that they were planning to steal the pigeons.
Prosecution records said the defendants placed the pigeons in bags, put them in their car and drove away to Sharjah where they left the pigeons at a friend's house.
The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
