DUBAI // Three men accused of assaulting and robbing a passerby after he refused their offer of sex with a prostitute have been acquitted.
The Criminal Court cleared the three men - MM, 23, MA, 28 and SA, 23, all from Bangladesh - of assault, theft and promoting sin.
Prosecutors had claimed that on November 6 last year the trio accosted the man while he was walking down a side road in Al Baraha and tried to lure him into a nearby flat where they said he could have sex with a prostitute.
"When I refused one of them pushed me to the ground and then they all assaulted me before going through my pockets and taking my wallet and mobile phone," the man MN, 24, from Pakistan, testified. He said he screamed for help and his attackers fled.
He was found by police lying on the ground bleeding from a head injury and was taken to hospital. The man lost Dh1,700 and his ID card in the attack.
The three men were arrested on February 21 this year.
wissa@thenational.ae
