Five Chinese visitors allegedly kidnapped a compatriot woman and confined her in an apartment, demanding Dh100,000 as ransom for her freedom.
At around 10pm, the victim HY, 34, was walking in Dubai's Al Muteena area when a car stopped next to her and a passenger in the back seat opened the door and asked her about Al Ghurair Centre.
When she stepped towards him to tell him about the route, he pulled her into the car’s back seat while another person in the back seat dragged her in by pulling her neck.
She told Dubai Court that the first one chained her hands and the second one covered her eyes with a tape. The kidnappers drove for about an hour and a half after which they stopped and took her in to a flat where two other Chinese men were already there.
“They asked me to pay them Dh100,000 against releasing me but I told them that I do not have such a huge amount. I said I have only Dh5,000,” she told the court.
The kidnappers asked her to call her relatives back home to deposit a reduced amount of Dh10,000 in a Chinese bank in their 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 called to say the money had been transferred,” she told investigators.
Two of the kidnappers asked the victim to accompany them to a supermarket where they met a Chinese woman who worked as a saleswoman to collect the amount transferred to her bank account in China.
“After a ten-minute drive, we arrived at a supermarket. One of the kidnappers asked the cashier to hand him over Dh10,000 that was transferred to her account. When he failed to give her details of the sender, he asked me to tell her. While I was telling her about my sister’s details and contacts, she noticed that I was scared,” the victim told the court.
The saleswoman called the victim’s sister asking her about the money transfer and enquired where there could be problem regarding the money transfer.
“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 relationship with me.
"When the two men noticed the woman’s suspicion especially when she asked them to wait until police arrived and be sure that there was no problem with the money transfer, they tried to drag me out of the super market. When I held on to the cashier's desk and prevented them from pulling me out; they ran away,” she said.
The saleswoman, who is known in her community for helping entrepreneurs in money transfers, told police that she suspected the men because the woman looked scared and they were standing next to her blocking her from both sides.
After six days, police arrested ST, 35, in another kidnap case. ST admitted kidnapping the victim in this case as well and he identified his four other accomplices.
Police arrested the accused and confiscated the victim’s bag which contained Dh5,000 and her passport in the car they had used.
The victim recognised three of the accused.