DUBAI // An armed gang attacked police who had raided a brothel, leaving one officer lying in a pool of blood, a court was told yesterday.
Eight men appeared at the Dubai Criminal Courts of First Instance yesterday on a string of charges including prostitution, human trafficking, assaulting police officers and destroying a police car.
The defendants - three Emiratis, two Indians, two Bangladeshis and a 45-year-old stateless person - were also charged with operating a brothel, resisting arrest, threatening a police officer and theft.
It was alleged that two of the Emiratis, AA and MM, an Indian defendant, FS, and a Bangladeshi, JH, operated the brothel. A third Emirati, MJ, was also alleged to have been involved. A further suspect is still at large.
The defendants were arrested after one of the women they forced into prostitution contacted the police, court officials said.
The Nepalese woman, 27, told prosecutors she had been forced to have sex with up to 25 men a day.
"I arrived from Nepal to work as a maid and was met by [the suspect still at large]. I was beaten up and forced to sleep with 25 men a day every day. So I called a friend from one of my customers' mobiles and asked for help."
After her friend contacted police, officers raided a building in the Hamriya district where police said they found the alleged operation spread across two houses. The Nepalese woman told the court that while she was being taken to safety, a gang armed with knives and swords arrived and attacked the officers.
"When the men appeared and started fighting, I ran away and hid at a hospital which was nearby until police found me," she said.
According to a Dubai Police officer, a complaint was filed by the Nepalese consulate regarding a Nepalese woman who had been held and forced into prostitution. The officer said that on February 26 he went to the location with an official from the consulate.
"We found a man at the door letting people in - we took him for questioning and he confessed to us about the brothel and the Nepalese woman," the officer told the court.
The man signed a search warrant and the officer called in reinforcements and they entered the house. "When we raided the house we found three men inside; we arrested them and freed the women," he said.
A few minutes later, the court heard, a red pick-up truck arrived carrying five armed, masked men, who attacked the officers with swords and knives. The officer was hit on the back of the head with a sharp object and fell to the floor.
"Someone said, 'Let's kill him so CID will know not to mess with our neighbourhood,' but another man pushed him back," the officer told prosecutors. He said the Nepalese consulate official escaped and called an ambulance.
Another officer said that after he had led the Nepalese woman and three others to safety out of the back of the building, he returned to find the injured policeman lying in a pool of blood at the front door.
The defendants are also alleged to have destroyed one police vehicle and smashed the windows of another.
After the gang members were restrained and arrested by additional officers, an accounts ledger was recovered showing outgoings and income, prosecution records claim.
The trial was adjourned until December 20 for the presentation of witness testimonies and to hear defence statements.
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Ten10 Cricket League
Venue and schedule Sharjah Cricket Stadium, December 14 to 17
Teams
Maratha Arabians Leading player: Virender Sehwag; Top picks: Mohammed Amir, Imad Wasim; UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Zahoor Khan
Bengal Lions Leading player: Sarfraz Ahmed; Top picks: Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman; UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Rameez Shahzad
Kerala Kings Leading player: Eoin Morgan; Top picks: Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir; UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Imran Haider
Pakhtoons Leading player: Shahid Afridi; Top picks: Fakhar Zaman, Tamim Iqbal; UAE players: Amjad Javed, Saqlain Haider
Punjabi Legends Leading player: Shoaib Malik; Top picks: Hasan Ali, Chris Jordan; UAE players: Ghulam Shabber, Shareef Asadullah
Team Sri Lanka Cricket Will be made up of Colombo players who won island’s domestic limited-overs competition
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RESULT
Aston Villa 1
Samatta (41')
Manchester City 2
Aguero (20')
Rodri (30')
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
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- Keep an open mind
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.”
Without Remorse
Directed by: Stefano Sollima
Starring: Michael B Jordan
4/5
Scores in brief:
Day 1
New Zealand (1st innings) 153 all out (66.3 overs) - Williamson 63, Nicholls 28, Yasir 3-54, Haris 2-11, Abbas 2-13, Hasan 2-38
Pakistan (1st innings) 59-2 (23 overs)
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital