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29 March 2024

Prison break inside job: Dubai police chief

Picture used for illustrative purposes only. (FILE)

Published
By Mohamad Al Sidafy

The head of Dubai Police Lt General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim believes that the prisoners who escaped from the detention cell in Al Murraqabat police station could have had help from inside.

While police launched a manhunt for the four Asians accused for various crimes, the police chief said: “There was negligence from wardens which caused the escape. We are investigating to find out the details and circumstances of the breakout to track down the men.”

Meanwhile, head of the Criminal Investigation Department Brigadier Khaleel Ibrahem Al Mansouri denied the escape was an inside job. He however admitted it was sloppy security job by the officials and said guards were being questioned on the breakout.

He said the four detainees were escorted by a policeman to the section where they are allowed to make telephone calls to their families.

An unnamed police source was quoted in the media as saying the men used a leg of a bed to open a ceiling vent near the telephone area to flee from the lock-up.

According to the source, it took 24 hours for the guards to realise that the men were gone.

But the CID chief said the men “managed to get away and climbed the fence outside the detention centre.” Police could not find them although they chased the escaping detainees, he added.

He said the men are still in the country and the police would soon nab them.

While two of them were convicted in one robbery case, the third one in another, the fourth escapee was being held for drug-related cases.