Blackmailers sent to UAE by deportee, in lock-up
Seven people who had been sent by a deported Pakistani to blackmail a compatriot living in the UAE, were sentenced to one year in jail.
Aged 25 to 49, the convicts were also ordered to be deported after serving their jail sentence by the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance.
According to the records, ZA had been deported from the UAE to Pakistan for theft. He sent six people from Pakistan to the UAE to blackmail a compatriot.
They asked the man in the UAE to cough up Dh40,000 and threatened him that he would be killed if he refused to pay up. The 29-year-old victim MA received a phone call from Pakistan. The caller ZA threatened to kill him if he failed to pay Dh40,000.
“I knew him when he was here. He asked me to pay him Dh40,000 or he would kill me when I went to Pakistan. He also said he would send people to Dubai to kill me. But, I refused to give him the amount.
“Four days later, I received a phone call from my father asking me to come to our garment shop in the Grand Souq area. When I went there, my father told me about some people who had come and threatened to kill me if Dh40,000 was not paid to them.
"I immediately went to lodge a complaint with the police. On my way to the police station, I received a call from ZA who threatened to kill me if I did that. I did not pay attention to his threat and reported the matter to the police,” testified the victim.
His father HM, 61, testified that at 9.30pm, a group of Pakistanis entered the shop and asked about his son. “He is not here, I told them. They said Dh40,000 should be paid to them or they would kill my son. I kept silent and they left the shop. I noticed that after they left the shop, they stopped to talk to another group of men and then they all left.
“I asked the worker in the shop to follow them to know where they stay. The worker returned after some time and told me that he recognised one of them as he works as a tailor for Dubai Police and is well known in the area. I called my son and asked him to come to the shop. When he came, I told him about the incident and he reported it to Al Rifaa police station,” testified the father.
Police obtained the pictures of the accused and the culprits were identified with the help of a police informer. Copies of their passports were obtained from the tourist agency which had issued them visit visas on the request of a person in Dubai who had been asked by the deported ZA to get visas for them and supplied him with their passport photocopies. They were arrested in a flat at Al Rifaa area.