Gangster convicted in Wafi jewellery heist found dead in Dubai prison cell

DUBAI // Oneof the gang who stole Dh14.7 million worth of jewellery in a robbery at Wafi mall in 2007 was found dead in his cell at Dubai Central jail.

Ilincic Borko, a 34-year-old Serbian, was appealing against a 10-year sentence and had been scheduled to appear at Dubai Court of Appeal yesterday.

A source said Borko was found hanging in his cell about six weeks ago. He was hanging from a rope made out of his clothes.

Borko had denied charges of aiding, abetting and forgery and use of a forged passport.

The source also said that the Serbian applied for the appeal in December last year, then filed an application asking that the appeal be dropped.

He killed himself the following morning.

Maj Gen Khalil Al Mansouri, assistant commander of Dubai CID, said that the body was referred to the forensic lab for a post-mortem examination that confirmed it was suicide.

Prosecutors said Borko aided a number of unidentified thieves in the armed robbery at Graf jewellery shop on Wafi’s ground floor in April 2007. The thieves rammed the shop with two stolen cars. The masked men, some of whom remain at large and oth- ers who have been tried and sentenced to 10 years in jail, stole the cars then crashed them into to jewellery shop’s glass front at about 10pm. They used toy guns and smashed display cases with iron bars, snatching jewellery worth Dh14.7m.

The Serbian was also convicted of forging a passport and a visa, which he used to enter the UAE illegally and stay with another Bosnian suspect in a flat in Al Riffa.

In court, he admitted using a fake passport to enter the UAE but denied any involvement in the robbery.