Jail terms for women who lured men online in Dubai, robbed them

Dubai - The court found them guilty of forcible theft charges and ordered them to be deported after serving their jail term.

A gang of six women, accused of luring men online with paid sex and massage services, and later assaulting and robbing them of cash in their apartment, have each been sentenced to one year in jail.

The Court of First Instance was told that the six women, all Nigerians on visit visas, aged between 29 and 58, would initiate a chat on messaging app Tango while using pictures of beautiful women and then invite the men over for massage or lure them with paid sex.

The court found them guilty of forcible theft charges and ordered them to be deported after serving their jail term. It ruled that it was out of its jurisdiction to look into the charges of using others' names during police interrogation and overstaying with expired visas.

The women earlier admitted to the charges in the court.

The women were spotted by an Emirati witness on the street on November 25, 2016. "I saw African women entering a building and they smelled like they had been drinking liquor. Shortly later, I saw a man coming down with an injured hand. He told me he was assaulted by them so I called the police," the Emirati, 24, said.

"We received a report at around 1am about a problem at the Financial Centre area. We were told about some women running a prostitution den where they would assault and forcibly rob customers of cash and valuables. We learned every man would come out of that flat beaten up and robbed," a police sergeant said.

The police raided the flat with a public prosecution warrant and arrested the women, while seizing the knife with which they used to threaten the men.

"I received a friend request from an unknown woman on Tango and accepted it. That woman told me she offered massage services at her hotel apartment and gave me her address. When I reached there, I could not find the woman whom I had spoken to earlier. But I was surprised to see six African women locking the door. They cornered and grabbed me and I knew there was no way out. I handed them Dh500 but one of them snatched Dh650 and $200 before letting me go," said a 28-year-old Iraqi on a visit visa.

A 27-year-Syrian told the prosecutor of a similar story of how he was lured on Tango into a date to have sex for Dh600 on November 24, 2016. "I went there but I could not spot the beautiful European woman whose picture I had seen and with whom I had the date. One of them snatched my phone while they threatened and assaulted me as they searched for money. I gave them SR1,000 so they let me out."

mary@khaleejtimes.com