Prayer beads ‘were robbery bait’

Victim stabbed and robbed of Dh80,000, Dubai court hears

DUBAI // Three attackers tried to cheat a man by offering him special prayer beads before stabbing him in his car and stealing more than Dh80,000, Dubai Criminal Court heard yesterday.

The three Emiratis – aged 24, 26 and 31 – were not in court to face charges of theft, assault and issuing death threats.

They contacted the victim, also Emirati, on September 3, 2014, and offered him prayer beads worth Dh65,000. He agreed to meet them that day in Jumeirah 2. “They came into my car to hand me the beads but on the condition that I show them the cash first,” said the victim, 27.

“I did so and suddenly one of them stabbed me in the chest. When I resisted, I was stabbed with a sword in the arm.”

The court heard that he was dragged to the back seat, assaulted and threatened with death. One of the attackers later used the victim’s mobile phone to call the victim’s maid.

“He asked my maid to wait at the gate to my house and bring all the cash that was there. She didn’t know what was going on and did what they asked,” said the victim.

He was left in the back seat as his car was driven to another place where his attackers met several men.

“With the little strength left in me, I managed to jump into the driver’s seat and sped away,” said the victim.

He called his family and told them about the incident, and asked them to call an ambulance for him. When he reached home, he sat outside until an ambulance arrived and took him to hospital.

The victim’s younger brother said: “I went out to check if he had returned and I saw him sitting on the pavement, bleeding. He told me he was stabbed.”

It was not clear why the case took three years to reach court or when the three men were arrested but prosecutors said they confessed to committing the crime.

The next hearing will be on January 29.