Dubai: Dubai Court of Appeals has upheld a sentence against a gang that kidnapped and threatened a businessman, forcing him to transfer Dh2.5 million of cryptocurrency.
Dubai Court of First Instance had sentenced the men to three years in jail to be followed by deportation. A fine of Dh2.5 million was also imposed on the gang members. The Dubai Court of Appeals upheld that sentence.
The verdict is subject to one more appeal in the Court of Cassation within 30 days.
Financial dispute
According to official records, the victim had a financial dispute with his countryman and the latter decided to kidnap the victim with help from four other countrymen. The victim was parking his car in front of his house in Bur Dubai when the five men attacked him.
“They were masked and they forced me into a car after covering my face. One tied my hands and another put a knife on my throat, threatening to kill me,” said the victim on record.
They took him to a villa at an unknown location and asked him to transfer the cryptocurrency. When he refused, the gang tortured him by forcing needles into his fingernails. The gang knew that the victim was in possession of different types of cryptocurrencies. “They kicked me in the face and threatened to kill me. I contacted my friends, asking them to wire cryptocurrency to my ewallet and later I transferred them to two different ewallets belonging to the attackers,” the victim added. He wired a total amount of Dh2.5 million in cryptocurrency.
The gang then threatened to kill him if he alerted the police and dropped him back home.
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Threatening and seizing the victim
The man reported the incident to Dubai Police who identified the plate number of the vehicle that was used in the kidnapping. A policeman testified that three defendants were arrested who admitted to the crime.
Dubai Public Prosecution had charged the five defendants with kidnapping, threatening and seizing the victim. They were additionally charged with robbing cryptocurrency.
