An Emirati who tried to cheat his compatriot by offering him special prayer beads before stabbing him and stealing more than Dh80,000 will spend three years in jail after losing his appeal.
The 24-year-old was convicted along with two other Emiratis, aged 26 and 31, by Dubai Criminal Court in January of theft, assault and issuing death threats. They were all sentenced to three years in jail each.
They contacted the victim on September 3, 2014 to offer him prayer beads worth Dh65,000 and agreed to meet that day in Jumeirah 2.
"They came into my car to hand me the beads on the condition that I show them the cash first," said the victim, 27.
"I did so and suddenly one of them stabbed me in the chest. When I resisted, I was stabbed with a sword in the arm."
The man was dragged to the back seat, assaulted and threatened with death. One of the attackers later used the victim’s mobile phone to call his maid.
"He asked my maid to wait at the gate to my house and bring all the cash that was there. She didn’t know what was going on and did what they asked," said the victim.
He was left in the back seat as his car was driven to another place where his attackers met several men.
"With the little strength left in me, I managed to jump into the driver’s seat and speed away," said the victim.
He called his family, told them about the incident and asked them to call an ambulance.
When he reached home, he sat outside until an ambulance arrived and took him to hospital.
The victim’s younger brother said: "I went out to check if he had returned and I saw him sitting on the pavement, bleeding. He told me he was stabbed."
It was not clear why the case took three years to reach court or when the three men were arrested but prosecutors said they confessed to committing the crime.
One of the trio appealed against his sentence but lost as Dubai Court of Appeal upheld the verdict on Tuesday.