Dubai: Two workers lost their appeal and will spend two years in jail each for ambushing two employees of a money exchange house and attempting to rob Dh1.8 million from them at knifepoint.
The Nigerian workers, aged 33 and 30, attacked the Nepalese employees at 9.40pm while they were transferring the cash in a moneybag to the company’s security car in Naif in June.
The Nepalese men foiled the defendants’ bid to rob them at knifepoint as they fought back and one of them sustained an injury.
In January, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Nigerians of assaulting the Nepalese employees and attempting to steal Dh1.8 million.
The duo had pleaded not guilty.
The two accused then appealed their two-year imprisonment and asked to be acquitted by the Dubai Appeal Court.
Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm rejected the defendants’ appeal and upheld their primary judgements.
The two will be deported after serving their jail terms.
The accused and a third suspect, who remains at large, mugged the Nepalese while they were heading to the van with the money to take it to the exchange house.
One of the employees resisted the defendant’s attempt while his co-worker reported the matter to the police.
One of the attacked men, 25-year-old, testified that the defendants ambushed them while they were taking the money to the truck.
“My co-worker was carrying the moneybag when the defendants attacked us. One of them blocked our way and tried to snatch the bag from my co-worker’s hand. Immediately I hit him on his arm … then my co-worker rushed quickly to the van. Another suspect ran from the opposite side and tried to stab me with a knife … I injured my arm while trying to avoid the knife. I pushed the attacker, who fell to the ground. A third suspect came running from the other side but when he spotted his accomplice down on the ground, they all ran away,” he said.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal within 25 days.
