Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter
Dubai Appellate Court upheld the verdict of the Court of First Instance jailing four people in presence and another in absentia for three years, to be followed by deportation after serving their sentences.
The suspects were also fined Dhs300,000 for being convicted of forming a gang and luring two compatriots by advertising vacant jobs through the Telegram app, besides detaining the victims inside a villa and seizing Dhs300,000 from their families in ransom before selling them again to a gang working in gambling, for Dhs60,000.
According to the case file, in 2021, the authorities received reports from some people alerting they were kidnapped and assaulted after being lured with a fake ad for vacant jobs.
A policeman reported that an investigation team collected evidence and identified the identity of the gangsters and the villa where they detained the victims. The villa was reportedly raided and the suspects were arrested.
When questioned, the victims reported that they came to the country to search for a job opportunity, and one of them saw an ad for job opportunities on the Telegram app, so they contacted the person who put the ad and agreed on a place to meet him to have the interview before having the job.
They added that they arrived at the specified place where one of the suspects was waiting for them inside his vehicle before another vehicle arrived with 4 people who attacked them from behind and forced them to get into the vehicle.
Then they allegedly assaulted and threatened them with death before taking them to the villa where they were detained.
According to the victims, the gangsters filmed them naked as they assaulted them, sent the video clip to their families, and asked them for Dhs300,000 in ransom to release them.
Their families allegedly sent the amount, and after that the gangsters sold them to another gang for Dhs60,000.
On being interrogated, the suspects confessed to conniving to lure job seekers, detain them, and ask for a ransom from their families in their home countries. They also confessed that they committed several crimes in the same criminal way.
