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28 March 2024

Witch-doctor nabbed by Dubai police

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By Staff

Dubai police arrested an African woman involved in witchcraft and illegal traditional medical practices after it tried to sell medical herbs worth Dh five to a police undercover for Dh14,000, newspapers said on Thursday.

The woman, who had eluded a previous court jail and deportation sentence, had already extorted large sums of money from many persons after misleading them into believing she could heal their illness by a simple herbs formula.

One victim duped for Dh22,000 was a local woman who suffered from chronic headache and got a presumed herbal prescription for Dh3,000 after visiting the African’s “clinic house” in Hamdan area.

When the medicine did not work, the woman returned to the African, who gave her a “more powerful” herbal drug for Dh5,000.

The woman returned for a third time after she did not feel any improvement and the “doctor” gave her a new prescription for Dh14,000, saying it was the last herbal formula that would eliminate her headache once and for all.

“When the woman did not improve, she reported the case to the police…we sent a female police undercover to that woman to claim she is ill,” said Brigadier Khalil Al Mansoori, director the criminal investigation department in Dubai.

“The woman charged her Dh14,000 but our undercover said she would come back with the money….when she returned with that sum and handed it to the African, police raided the house and arrested her.”

Quoted by the Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum, Mansoori said the drugs provided by the African woman to the police undercover for Dh14,000 included only a small amount of herbs and incense that are sold at groceries for Dhfive.

“Our raiding ream found a large quantity of incense, talismans and other items used in witchcraft…the woman confessed that she has been involved in such work for nearly 28 years inside and outside the UAE…she had even made some victims believe that she can heal incurable illnesses and end marital problems.”

Mansoori said the woman was sentenced in 2008 to two months in prison and ordered deported but succeeded in eluding the deportation order.