Five women kidnap and film manicurist nude in blackmail plot, Dubai court hears

Five Moroccan woman and several others on trial over locking up manicurist, attacking her and trying to extort millions of dirhams out of her brother.

DUBAI // Five Moroccan women kidnapped a manicurist and filmed her naked before sending the clip to the victim’s brother, demanding a ransom, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said W S, 26, G Q, 23, Z K, 24, and Egyptian businessman T A, 30, kidnapped the Moroccan woman on September 19 last year while she was waiting for a taxi in Al Nahda.

The alleged kidnappers pushed 29-year-old victim L A into the businessman’s car then took her to an apartment in the area. When the victim tried to scream, the man threatened to kill her, it is alleged.

Records said the three women, assisted by countrywomen F A, 26, and K A, 24, and Ethiopian H Z, 30, locked up the victim in the one-bedroom apartment.

Afterwards W S tore the victim’s passport and slapped her repeatedly before forcing her to strip naked and say unethical words. It is alleged she then made a recording of L A and sent it to her brother in Morocco.

“When I asked her what she wanted from me, she said money,” said L A. “I told her I did not have money but she told me that my brother was rich because he owns a business in Italy.”

Prosecutors said after sending the video through WhatsApp, W S forced the manicurist to call her brother and tell him to pay MAD7 million (Dh2.58m) to W S’s husband in Morocco or she would post the recording of L A online.

“Following the phone call, W S called for three men to come into the room then told them to rape me but, when they saw that I had my menstrual cycle, they refrained from doing so,” L A told prosecutors.

Court records show the victim’s brother agreed to send the money within two days. In that time his sister was beaten by all five women and stabbed in the hand by W S, it is alleged.

L A’s brother called a friend of his living in Dubai and told him about the situation.

“He called me after midnight on September 21 and said his sister was kidnapped and the kidnappers filmed her naked and are blackmailing him with the recording,” said MJ, 36.

The same day, M J reported the incident to police after seeing the video. Police managed to locate the apartment and raided it at about 11pm that day.

“The female defendants were smoking shisha in the living room while the victim was alone in the bedroom. I checked the building’s surveillance camera and saw as the victim was forced inside by the defendants,” said 31-year-old Emirati policeman A Y A.

The officer said all the female defendants were arrested at the apartment, while L A was referred to Latifa Hospital. The male defendants were apprehended later.

Prosecutors found the recording on W S’s phone, as well as other pictures of her tied up and blindfolded.

W S, G Q, Z K and T A are all charged with kidnap. W S, G Q, Z K, F A, K A and H Z are charged with locking up the victim using force. WS, GQ and KA are charged with physically assaulting their victim, and W S alone is charged with sexual assault, issuing threats, blackmail and deliberately damaging an official document.

T A is charged with issuing death threats, while he and his countrymen M A, 30, and A A, 33, are charged with aiding and abetting.

All of the defendants denied all charges against them at Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday morning.

“I only filmed her while naked but it was upon her request and with her consent,” said W S, while G Q and Z K told the judge that they only helped restrain the victim using duct tape. The court denied a bail request submitted by W S’s lawyer.

The next hearing is on January 19 to appoint defence lawyers for the defendants who could not afford to hire lawyers for themselves.