DUBAI // Three loan sharks dragged a man on to a rooftop and beat him to collect on a Dh500 debt that had accrued Dh6,000 in interest, a court has been told.
M M, 33, a messenger; MS, 30, an electrician; and MI, 26, an assistant electrician, all Bangladeshis, denied charges of kidnapping and assault when they appeared in the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance on Wednesday.
OJ, a 33-year-old Bangladeshi, told officers that MM and another man, who has not been apprehended, dragged him off the street near his home in Deira at 3am on May 20 and forced him into a car.
He said the men held him down in the car by placing their feet on his head and drove him to a building. He was forced up to the building's roof, where the other defendants were waiting. They placed him in a chair and beat him, he said.
The three defendants were arrested after a tip-off by a car park attendant who witnessed OJ being forced into the car.
The attendant, identified as a JA, a 22-year-old Afghani, told prosecutors that MM had parked his car in the lot and left the engine running. A few minutes later, he saw MM and another man drag the victim into it.
"When I interfered, they told me to mind my own business because this man owed them Dh6,000," said JA, who called police and gave them the number plate of MM's car.
Officers used the number plate to track down MM's mobile telephone number. They called him and ordered him to proceed to a local police station to be questioned about the incident.
OJ testifed that the defendants made him undress and gave him a fresh set of clothes before they all went to the station, where they were arrested. The court documents did not provide any further information about the fourth suspect.
The court adjourned the trial until July 25.
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
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