Four jailed for filming, kidnapping woman in Dubai

(Representational image)

Three Moroccan women (a hairdresser, 26, and two saleswomen, aged 23 and 24) and an Egyptian businessman, 30, have each been sentenced by the Court of First Instance to three years in jail for kidnapping a Moroccan woman and filming her naked to blackmail her brother for a 7 million Moroccan dirham ransom.
Three other women (two Moroccans, aged 26 and 24, and an Ethiopian maid, 30) have each been sentenced to two years in jail for helping and abetting the four main defendants confine the victim in a flat and deprive her of freedom.
Two Egyptian men (a restaurant manager, 30 and a vendor, 33) were sentenced to one year in jail each for criminal complicity.
The victim, a 29-year-old Moroccan manicurist, said the four main accused kidnapped her at around 8pm on September 19, 2015, in Al Qusais.
"I had just walked out of a clothing shop in Al Nahda when they blocked my way and forced me inside the businessman's car".
They took her to a flat where they seized her belongings including her mobile phone and passport which the main female accused tore up.
"She filmed me naked with her mobile phone and then sent the clip to my brother on WhatsApp to blackmail him to pay the woman's husband in Morocco 7 million Moroccan dirhams or she would circulate the clip on the net.
"The men watched me as I was naked. The main female defendant asked them to rape me but that did not happen," the victim told the prosecutor.
The accused tied the victim's hands and feet with duct tapes. They also gagged her. She was held there for two days.
The brother's compatriot friend in Dubai reported the defendants to the police after he was contacted by him.
"We could track the victim's location at a flat in Al Nahda. We went there at around 11pm on September 21. We found her exhausted and scared. She had bruises and injury marks," a police lieutenant said. The women were then arrested.
All the defendants will be deported after completing their jail terms, the court ruled.
They may appeal the ruling.
mary@khaleejtimes.com