DUBAI // A Dubai court found two men guilty of locking up an Australian flight attendant at his flat and robbing him.
The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced Pakistanis S S, 30, and S H, 28, to five years in jail each, while their countryman Z H, 28, received a six-month sentence for forgery committed after the robbery.
Prosecutors said S S and S H – who were acquainted with the victim, 34-year-old S A – on March 12, 2013, and, after having a few drinks with him, restrained him and locked him in his bedroom before stealing two Blackberry phones and two laptops.
S S said in his confession to prosecutors that on the day of the incident, S A was headed to the toilet when S S and S H started stealing belongings from the flat.
As they were leaving the flat, S S said S A came out of the toilet and saw them, after which they dragged him to the bedroom and restrained him. The defendants used leather ropes to tie S A and stuck a ball in his mouth to silence him, the court was told.
Following the theft, Z H met S S and helped him forge a residency on a Pakistani passport, as S S had been residing in the UAE illegally since 2002.
S S and S H confessed to theft, while only S S confessed to the charge of forgery and the use of forged documents. He told the court that in September last year, Z H forged the passport in return for Dh25,000, an allegation that Z H denied.
The victim had met his attackers through a website, after which they began to meet often, and the pair knew where he lived, according to court records.
The defendants will be deported after serving their jail terms.
salamir@thenational.ae