3 years for gang of 6 for Dh10,000 ransom demand

Six Chinese visitors were awarded three months in jail followed by deportation sentence for convicting them guilty of trickily kidnapping a compatriot woman and confining her in a flat asking her to pay Dh100,000 in ransom before reducing it to Dh10,000.

According to the records, at around 10pm, on September 19, 2009, the victim HY, 34 was walking in Al Muteena area when silver Hyundai stopped next to her… a passenger in the back seat opened the door and asked me whereabouts Al Ghurair centre… As I stepped towards him to guide him to the location, he pulled me into the back seat where another person who was sitting in the back seat pulled my neck back and the first one tightened my hands and covered my eyes with a tape. The kidnappers drove for about an hour and a half after which they stopped and entered me into a building and then a flat where there were other two compatriot men. They asked me to pay them Dh100,000 against releasing me… I told them that I do not have that huge amount… I have only Dh5,000, I told them.”

The kidnappers did not suffice that amount and asked her to call her relatives back in China and to ask them to transfer Dh10,000 to a bank account in a bank in her home country.

“I called my sister and asked her to transfer the amount to the bank account supplied by the kidnappers. A few minutes later, my sister assured the transfer of the amount,” she told investigators.

Two of the kidnappers asked the victim to accompany them to a supermarket where they met a compatriot who works as a saleswoman to collect the amount which was transferred to her bank account in China.

“After ten minutes drive we arrived to a supermarket. One of the kidnappers asked the saleswoman at the cashier to hand him over Dh10,000 that was transferred to her account.

“As he failed to give her details of the sender, he asked me to speak out and tell her. While I was telling her my sister’s details and contacts, she noticed that I was scared.

The saleswoman who called the victim’s sister asking her about the money transfer enquired if there were any problem regarding that.

“My sister told her that there could be a problem. So she refused to hand over the amount and asked one of the men to give his ID card and asked him about his relation with me. As the two men noticed the woman’s suspicions especially that she asked them to wait until police arrive and be sure that there was not any problem behind the money transfer, they tried to pull me out of the super market… I held the cashier desk and prevented them from pulling me out… they ran away through a narrow rout.

The saleswoman who is known amongst her compatriot with helping entrepreneurs in money transfers told the police that she suspected the men as the woman looked scared and they were standing next to her blocking her from both sides.

After six days from the crime, police arrested ST, 35, in another kidnap case.

ST, admitted to kidnapping the victim in this case as well and he identified his partners who were: ST WT, 34, YZ, 37, SS, 27, and TL, 26.

Police arrested the accused and confiscated the victim’s bag which contained Dh5,000 and her passports in the car they were using.

They also confiscated a tape in the car.

The accused recognized three of the accused including the one who had a tattoo on his shoulders. She could not recognized the other two as her eyes were taped most of the time.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.