Dubai: A trader, who has a neurological disorder, has been jailed for three months for conspiring with others and abducting an engineer over selling them fake phones.

The 39-year-old Pakistani engineer struck a business deal and sold one of his countrymen merchant phones worth Dh5,400 in June.

When the merchant realised that the phones were fake, he gathered a number of his friends, including the 52-year-old Pakistani trader, and asked them to help him to settle the dispute with the engineer.

The trader, the merchant and three others went in a minibus to a metro station where they assaulted the engineer and forced him into the vehicle.

Then they drove all the way to Ajman where they kept the engineer confined until he called his friend and asked him to bring him Dh5,400 that the merchant had been demanding.

The friends drove to Ajman and when they reached the place where the engineer was locked up, they saw the five men assaulting the 39-year-old.

The friends called the police and the trader was apprehended while the others ran away.

On Thursday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 52-year-old Pakistani of abducting the engineer using physical violence.

When the accused appeared in court, he was limping. He pleaded not guilty.

Citing grounds of leniency, presiding judge Urfan Omar sentenced the defendant to three months in jail and ordered that he be deported.

When asked about his health condition, the defendant told the presiding judge that he developed a neurological disorder that crippled his left arm and leg.

The engineer said a group of men came out of the minibus while he was waiting at the metro parking and abducted him at 2.30am.

“They beat and forced me into the minibus, then drove to Ajman. They made me alight in a deserted area where they beat me again and asked me to pay Dh5,400 to the merchant, who had purchased mobile phones from me and told me that they were fake. I called a friend and told him to bring the money. They let me go after they took their money,” he said.

Thursday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.