Teenager jailed after attack on woman in her Dubai flat

Iranian given six-month sentence after gang barged into woman's house and stole from her after restraining and gagging her.

DUBAI // A jobless teenager who was a member of a gang that attacked a 57-year-old woman after barging into her flat pretending to be police officers will spend six months in jail.

The 19-year-old Iranian denied a theft charge at Dubai Criminal Court in August but he has now been found guilty.

On January 31, the woman answered her door to men who barged into her flat, claiming they were police who needed to search her home.

“It was 2pm when that happened. They started searching and I told them I would call police if they didn’t leave so one of them slapped me several times,” said the Chinese woman, who was dragged into her bedroom, restrained and gagged with her own clothes.

“They then covered my entire body with a blanket, struck me on the chest and snatched my mobile phone,” said the woman.

About two hours later, she managed to partially untie herself to find that they had stolen Dh2,500, her iPhone and a keychain with 10 keys on it. She called police.

“When we arrived to Naif Market, the woman was standing in the street with her hands still tied behind her back,” said a 56-year-old policeman.

Ten days later, the teenager was arrested but he denied any wrongdoing, saying that he and his friends went to the woman’s flat to reclaim the belongings of a female friend who used to live there.

“He said that the Chinese woman locked them inside, demanding they pay her Dh1,000 so she would hand them the items, so they had to drag her away, unlock the door and leave,” testified a 23-year-old Emirati police lieutenant.

However, the court disagreed and jailed him for six months.