5 on trial for assaulting, intimidating 17-year-old

Dubai - The victim, a 17-year-old student, said when he came back from military service, he learnt from his mother that one of the accused collected Dh100,000 from their family on different occasions. "He took the money to fix one of our cars and also to sell us two cars. He did not give our family any receipts."

Two brothers (aged 21 and 34), their uncle (41) and two of their friends (20 and 30) - all Emiratis - stood trial in the Dubai Court of First Instance on the charge of making criminal threats against a compatriot.
The victim, a 17-year-old student, said when he came back from military service, he learnt from his mother that one of the accused collected Dh100,000 from their family on different occasions. "He took the money to fix one of our cars and also to sell us two cars. He did not give our family any receipts."
Around 9pm on January 13 he met them to see if they would sort the problem out.
"I was sitting in the backseat of their car when one of them punched me. He said if he wanted to bury me or sexually assault me, he would have done that and nobody would stop him and that he was not scared of the police," the student said.
The accused also told the student that he could not run away from them. "He said he would burn my house and hurt my family."
One of the defendant's accomplices then hit him with a bamboo stick on the hand and stepped out of the car.
One of the two brothers, 21, then told the student that he would take him to the desert and sexually assault him there and bury him while filming the act.
"I felt very scared and told them to forgive me. But the older brother told me he would forgive me if I went with him to the desert."
The following day, the student tried to avoid them but one of them allegedly told him on the phone: "If you don't go out I will burn your house down."
The student's mother, a 50-year-old housewife, said one of the brothers collected Dh96,000 from their family.
The mother told her son to call the police when he came home at 2.30am after meeting them. "He looked scared. I learnt one of them punched him. There were red marks on his hand and face."
The defendants have also been charged with physical assault and insult.
The incident was reported to Bur Dubai police.
mary@khaleejtimes.com