African gang jailed for assaulting Asian national
DUBAI: The Dubai Appellate Court upheld the ruling of the Court of First Instance imprisoning an African gang of 4 people for 3 years, to be followed by deportation ater serving the jail term, on charges of luring and assaulting an Asian and stealing Dhs1,550 from him, besides his bank card.
The incident dates back to February 2020, when the victim, 51, filed a report reporting that he was lured by an African gang that put an ad for a massage centre on a social networking site. He added when he headed to the place, they detained him, assaulted him, photographed him and stole Dhs1,550 from him and his bank card.
The victim said in investigations he contacted the centre and one of the suspects sent him the location via Whatsapp. He added that upon his arrival, a girl forced him to enter it where there were two men and two women.
The suspects reportedly assaulted him, forced him to take off his clothes and photograph him. Then they stole his money and a bank card.
One of them atempted to withdraw money with the card, but it had no balance.
The gang members were arrested and referred to the prosecution, where they confessed to the crime.
COMMUNITY SERVICE: A bud ha bi police replaced the imprisonment penalty with community service, one of the modern penalties which was applied and implemented in the Abu Dhabi Police General Command since the issuance of the legislation in 2017 of the Community Service Measures Department of the Community Security Sector, according to Major Abdul Rahman Al Shibli, Director of the Community Service Measures Implementation Branch in the Community Service Sector.
Shibli said the Community Service is carried out by those who are penalised, in one of the approved bodies specified by the resolution, to benefit from the service which includes voluntary work which serves the community.
During the service, the penalised performs a community service work in one of the institutions or establishments, as an alternative to the imprisonment penalty, and it is at least for 7 days and does not exceed 3 months.
Al Shibli indicated that the Community Service is performed in several federal and local authorities in Abu Dhabi, including the General Authority for Islamic Affairs and Endowments, ADNOC Distribution, the Ministry of Culture and Youth, the Emirates Post Authority, prosecutions, Civil Defence, municipal affairs, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority and other charity institutions.
He affirmed that during the corona pandemic, Abu Dhabi Police provided this service, as the convicts contributed to benefiting various parties, such as checkpoints, vaccination centres and hospitals.