Dubai cable robbers lose appeal over three-year sentences



DUBAI // Two men who were sentenced to three years in prison for locking up and assaulting a security guard before stealing electrical cables worth Dh264,500 lost their appeal on Wednesday morning.

Last July, the Dubai Criminal Court convicted AA, 37, and 27-year-old AM, who are both unemployed Pakistanis, for assault, locking up a man against his will and robbery. They were each sentenced to three years.

The 50-year-old Indian security guard, NA, said that, at near midnight on June 18, while he was alone at the Emirates Electromechanics company in Jebel Ali, six masked men attacked him.

They restrained and gagged him before asking about the location of the electric cables. “When I said I didn’t know, one of the men slapped me and another waved a knife at my face,” said the guard.

They threatened to stab him if he did not take them to where the cables were stored. He was then dragged to the small praying room at the company where he was tied up and had his eyes covered.

“They left one to guard me and the rest left,” said the guard, who broke free at about 5am to find that the men had disappeared with the cables.

He reported the matter to police and the two defendants were arrested shortly after. A police officer testified that AA showed ferocious resistance but was eventually restrained and taken into custody.

“He told us that AM called him and asked him to join in the robbery,” said the policeman, MM, who added that AA confessed to the theft charge.

The officer said AA told him the gang headed to Sharjah after stealing the cables and sold them to a Bangladeshi man. “He told me his share in the whole thing was Dh100,” the policeman added.

Records did not state why the rest of the thieves were not arrested and charged.

The two men will be deported after completing their jail terms.

salamir@thenational.ae

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Europe’s rearming plan
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TOUR DE FRANCE INFO

Dates: July 1-23
Distance: 3,540km
Stages: 21
Number of teams: 22
Number of riders: 198

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Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
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Starring: Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen

Directed by: Bill Condon

Three out of five stars

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Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.

The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?

My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.

The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.

So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.