Dubai hotel guest goes for massage, gets robbed

Photo for illustrative purpose

A hotel guest was allegedly lured by four men and two women into a massage date at a hotel apartment, where he was robbed.
The six Nigerians stood trial at the Court of First Instance on Thursday.
According to public prosecution records, the accused had lured the victim through a woman into a massage date at a hotel apartment, where they locked him up and made him give them his hotel room key. They clicked photos of him naked too with a mobile phone.
Al Barsha police received the complaint on September 12, 2017.
"The complainant said he had been in contact with a woman who pretended to be Emirati. But when he went to meet her at a hotel room he only saw an African woman and her friends. They stole money from his wallet and managed to steal $2,900, Dh1,000 and a watch worth $7,000 after they held him up against his will and forced him under duress to give them the key of his hotel room and the secret number of the safe inside the room," a police lieutenant said.
The court was told the six accused threatened they would break the victim's legs in case the safe secret number was wrong.
"They took off his clothes by force and then took pictures of him naked."
They have been charged with false imprisonment, sexual assault and blackmail, breach of someone's privacy and forcible theft.
After they let him go, he found out they had stolen $2,900, Dh1,000 and a watch worth $7,000 from his hotel room.
The police nabbed the defendants from the same hotel apartment where they locked the victim up. The accused confessed during interrogation to committing several robberies using same technique.
One of the defendants admitted during public prosecution investigation that he had collected Dh700 from his accomplices after giving them his ID to book a room in a hotel. They had a plan to arrange for a massage date.
The victim identified three of them among other suspects at the police station.
mary@khaleejtimes.com