DUBAI // An Australian has been found guilty of threatening, assaulting and locking up his business partner in a hotel suite’s laundry room.
The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced 44-year-old F N to a six-month suspended jail term.
F N denied confining Pakistani L B for 12 hours, beating him with a metal bar and threatening to kill his family.
Friends of L B in Australia contacted the Pakistan embassy in the UAE, which alerted officers.
The two business partners were staying at a hotel in Al Barsha after arriving from South Africa to receive a gold shipment.
“He suddenly got angry and started screaming because the shipment’s documents did not arrive from South Africa,” L B, 54, told police, adding that F N took away his mobile phone, wallet and passport and dragged him into the laundry room.
Prosecutors said F N ordered L B to call his friends in Australia and ask them to wire him money. L B told his friends he was being confined, leading them to call the embassy.
M E, a 28-year-old Emirati policeman, said the victim was found bleeding on the bed.
“He told me that a misunderstanding caused the assault,” said the officer.
Records show that LB, who had to go to hospital, dropped charges against his partner.
salamir@thenational.ae
