DUBAI // Three men accused of kidnapping a British businessman committed a hideous crime, and tried to damage the reputation and safety of the UAE, a court has heard.
Abbas Yazasanpanah Yazdi, of Iranian descent, has been missing since June 2013 in what is believed to have been a politically motivated kidnapping.
Mr Yazdi, a father of two, owns a trading firm in Bur Dubai.
“This is not just a kidnap crime, it’s an assault on the reputation of the UAE, its safety and the safety of its people and everyone who resides or invests in it,” chief prosecutor Khaled Al Zarouni told the Dubai Criminal Court.
Mr Al Zarouni said the victim had fled from oppression to the UK but was kidnapped because of testimony he had given to an international arbitration tribunal in The Hague.
He said the court should find Iranians R A, 32, K J, 52, and N K, 55, guilty and hand them the harshest sentence allowed.
They are charged with kidnapping, theft, hiding stolen property, assault and endangering life. Three other accused Iranians are still at large.
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 and kidnap the victim, along with gloves, ropes, duct tape, taser guns and syringes filled with sedatives used in the crime.
Mr Yazdi was kidnapped in the car park of his workplace, prosecutors say. They say the gang put him on a ship to Iran after striking a deal with its captain.
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 then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Questions were raised when it was revealed by The Guardian newspaper that addresses and details taken from Mr Yazdi’s computer by the UK’s special fraud office had been passed on to Tehran in early 2013.
Mr Al Zarouni told the court yesterday: “In January 2013 one of the defendants came to Dubai and rented a house, which was used as a centre to plan and carry out the crime.
“Cars were rented and the victim was put under close observation, and on the day of the incident after a long day at work, the victim, who was taking his car to head home to his wife and family, was attacked, drugged and taken to Sharjah port, where he was smuggled into a ship and back to Iran.”
He said that after months of investigations, prosecutors had found medication used to drug the victim and masks were found 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.
At Dubai Criminal Court last May, R A said he was not guilty of hiding stolen property, assault and endangering life. But he confessed to kidnapping and stealing money from the victim.
He told the court 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, has said that arrest warrants have been issued for the three Iranians still at large.
“The three held were arrested in January last year 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 away from police’s eyes,” said Mr Al Zarouni.
A verdict is expected on February 25.
salamir@thenational.ae
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Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
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Creators: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Irwin Allen
Stars: Molly Parker, Toby Stephens, Maxwell Jenkins
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
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About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
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Develop an innovative business concept
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Put in place a business continuity plan after Covid-19
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* Tips from Jassim Al Marzooqi and Walid Hanna
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Total funding: Self funded
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Industry: E-grocery
Initial investment: $150,000
Future plan: Raise $1.5m and enter Saudi Arabia next year
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
