Man poses as PRO, kidnaps 7 housemaids from Dubai airport

Dubai - He took them to several rooms in Dubai where he held them captive until he offered them to work for different families.

An unemployed man, who allegedly kidnapped seven housemaids from the Dubai International Airport after pretending he was from the recruitment office that had brought them to the country, has gone on trial in the Court of First Instance.
Public prosecution records show the 29-year-old Egyptian man managed to kidnap the seven Asian women after falsely telling them he was a PRO from their office and then seizing their passports. He took them to several rooms in Dubai where he held them captive until he offered them to work for different families.
The accused also embezzled different amounts of money from more than four men after showing them forged employment contracts of the maids and falsely claiming he worked for a recruitment office.
He faced charges of kidnap, false imprisonment, fraud, theft and forgery.
A complaint was filed against him on August 27, 2017.
A 35-year-old Indonesian maid said she arrived in the UAE on July 6, 2017, to work as a housemaid for an Emirati family. "We were brought by a recruitment office located in Ajman. There were two other maids with me. We were waiting for the office PRO but the accused came and took our passports and mobile phones. He claimed to us he was from the recruitment agency. From the way he checked our papers, we believed he had verified our identities and then he asked us to accompany him. He took us to a flat in Dubai. He kept us there and told us we can't go outside. After he locked us inside, an Ethiopian woman came daily to give us food and do the cleaning work. We stayed there for three days and then that Ethiopian woman forgot to lock the door. We ran out and as we hailed a cab we called our office. The cab drove us to the recruitment agency in Ajman."
The maid added: "We identified the defendant later among other suspects at the police station."
Two other Indonesian housemaids, aged 28 and 31, gave similar testimonies to the prosecutors.
A 28-year-old Emirati man, whose money was embezzled by the accused, said he had paid him Dh12,500 after he had called the couple and offered them a maid and told them they can return her and get their money back in case she did not pass a one-month probation period. "He claimed he worked for a recruitment office and got our number from them. He came to our house in Abu Dhabi and showed us the maid's passport, her employment contract and some other papers."
The next hearing will be held on January 23.
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai