Four Emiratis charged with stealing school safe

A Emirati, convicted of stealing a school safe along with three accomplices, said he only confessed to protect his mother, the Appeals Court has heard.

ABU DHABI // A man who confessed to robbing a school’s safe with his friends, said he was forced to confess to protect his mother, the Appeals Court heard on Sunday.

Four Emiratis A M, M S, N M and A R were convicted of breaking into a school at night and stealing its safe, before fleeing in a car that was waiting outside.

They were caught on the school surveillance cameras wearing masks during the burglary.

Police managed to trace the getaway car, and the driver lead them to the rest of the group.

The men denied in court that they had left their hotel room, which they had rented on the night of the robbery.

N M also argued that the car he had rented that night did not move from the hotel premises.

“There is no footage to prove that the car moved from its place,” he told the court.

The chief justice Dr Khairi Al Kabbash challenged M S on the details of the incident.

“We as judges can tell the difference between a confession that was forced upon a defendant by dictating to him what to say, and between a thorough detailed one that described actual events.”

M S insisted that he was forced to confess. He said: “They told me the car was registered under my mother’s name and ‘if you did not steal it, then it was your mother who stole it [the safe]’.”

The chief justice further argued that the phrasing of the confession could not have been made except by someone who was at the crime scene and knew of the events in detail.

“How many safes were there at the school,” asked Dr Al Kabbash.

“I do not know, they said there was one,” replied M S.

The chief justice then asked M S if he had previously robbed schools and the accused denied this.

The case was adjourned.