DUBAI // A labourer denied robbing a woman who had attempted to blackmail him, the Dubai Criminal Court heard on Sunday.
Prosecutors said on March 25 this year, police received a call from the 26-year-old Pakistani woman, A A, reporting that she was robbed by three men at knifepoint, just before 5pm that day.
Police arrived at her apartment in International City’s Italian cluster where she told them that the defendant A K, 22, also Pakistani, along with three other men, barged into her flat when she opened the door for the supermarket delivery man.
“I had ordered an Etisalat credit recharge card, and when I opened the door to pick it up, the men pushed the door and entered the flat,” said A A.
She said that they pointed a knife at her and ordered her to take off a gold necklace and bracelet worth Dh5,500 she was wearing at the time. They then went through her belongings and stole Dh2,500 from one of the drawers in her bedroom as well as two mobile phones.
After they left, the woman reported them to police and A K was arrested in May. The other men who helped him remain unidentified.
During investigations, A K told police that he was having an illicit relationship with A A during which she had taken naked pictures of him while having drunk sex with her and later tried to blackmail him with the images.
He claimed she demanded he pay her Dh10,000 or she would post the pictures on the internet.
He told police that she had been selling her body.
“On the day of the incident, I went to her flat and rang the bell, she opened up then I came in and we spoke briefly after which I took the two mobile phones that had the photos and left,” he said in records.
He denied stealing jewellery and cash from her.
When confronted by police about her illicit relation with the defendant, A A denied the claim and also denied working as a prostitute. She and A K were both referred to court. A K was charged with armed robbery while A A was charged with working as a prostitute. Both defendants were jointly charged with having consensual sex outside wedlock.
Both denied the charges against them.
A verdict is expected on October 28.
salamir@thenational.ae
