DUBAI // Three men have been convicted of kidnapping and confining their countryman in a room in Sharjah and demanding a plot of land as ransom.
The Pakistani men were on Tuesday sentenced to six months in jail each, to be followed by deportation, despite their denial at an earlier hearing.
On April 11, they called the 25-year-old victim’s father in Pakistan and demanded that he registers a plot in the name of one of them in return for his son’s freedom.
On the day of the incident, the victim said two cars stopped next to where he was standing outside his building and a number of men, including the suspects, got out and surrounded him.
“They dragged me into one of the cars and took me to Sharjah,” said the man.
He was slapped and blindfolded and his phone as well as Dh3,000 were taken from him.
“When they finally removed the blindfold, I found myself in a room and the suspects were having dinner. They told me they will hand me to Abu Dhabi Police because I overstayed my visa,” said the victim.
While captive, the men called his father in Pakistan and tried to pressure him into giving away a plot of land he owns to one of them. When the father refused, his son was handed to police in the capital.
He said he was sent to court and sentenced to two months in jail for overstaying his visa, though he told police in Abu Dhabi his story and so Dubai Police was informed and officers there apprehended the three suspects.
salamir@thenational.ae