DUBAI // Three men each jailed for life for the kidnapping of a British businessman in 2013 lost their appeals against the sentences on Wednesday.
Iranians R A, 32, K J, 52, and N K, 55, were convicted of the kidnapping of Abbas Yazasanpanah Yazdi, who is of Iranian descent and who has been missing since June 2013. All three were jailed for life by Dubai Criminal Court in February.
They were also convicted of theft, hiding stolen property, assault and endangering life.
Three other accused Iranians are still at large.
The kidnapping is believed to have been politically motivated.
At a hearing in January, chief prosecutor Khaled Al Zarouni said that the defendants had committed a hideous crime and tried to damage the reputation and safety of the UAE.
Mr Al Zarouni said the victim fled oppression to the UK but was kidnapped because of testimony he had given to an international arbitration tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Records show that five months before the kidnapping, which took place on June 25, 2013, the gang rented a villa in Al Barsha and used it as a base. There, they hid rented cars used to watch then kidnap the victim.
Mr Yazdi, a father of two who owns a trading firm in Bur Dubai, was kidnapped in the car park of his workplace and put on a ship to Iran.
An Iranian opposition figure in London has said Mr Yazdi was kidnapped to gather evidence against Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, a childhood friend.
Mr Rafsanjani, the son of a former leader, was charged with inciting unrest after the re-election in 2009 of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Questions were raised when it was revealed that details taken from Mr Yazdi’s computer by the UK special fraud office had been passed to Tehran in early 2013. Mr Al Zarouni said that after months of investigations, prosecutors had found medication used to drug the victim and masks in the victim’s car and in the rented house.
Mr Al Zarouni said that a credit card belonging to the victim was found on one of the defendants, along with a small bag and business cards.
R A told both criminal and appeal courts that he was not guilty of hiding stolen property, assault or endangering life, but confessed to kidnapping and stealing money from the victim.
He said he was the one who drove the car used in the kidnapping. The other two defendants denied all charges.
Essam Al Humaidan, Dubai’s attorney general, had earlier said that arrest warrants had been issued for the three Iranians still at large.
“The three held were arrested after returning to Dubai for the second time after the kidnap happened, just to ensure that everything was fine and the villa they rented was still safe,” Mr Al Zarouni said.
All three will be deported after completing 25-year life sentences, which were upheld by Dubai Court of Appeal.
salamir@thenational.ae
