ABU DHABI // Two Egyptian men who kidnapped and threatened to kill a Syrian have been sentenced to jail followed by deportation.
AE and MH, both from Egypt, drove with YE, a Syrian, to Mussafah industrial area to buy car scraps on September 13.
On the way, the two Egyptians started to hit the Syrian and then tied his neck, legs and hands with ropes.
They threatened to kill him if he did not give them Dh40,000. It was unclear if this was a debt.
They also called a friend of the Syrian, telling him that if he did not make the payment he should forget about his friend.
As AE was driving to a deserted area, a police car signalled the car to stop. Although he did not stop, he slowed down, and the Syrian managed to open the car door and jump out.
The criminal court sentence AE to 11 months in prison and a Dh1,000 fine. He was also found to be in the country illegally.
MH was sentenced to six months. Both will be deported after serving their sentence.
YE was sentenced to two months in prison for providing prosecutors with false information. He had said a third man was with them during the incident.
osalem@thenational.ae
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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.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950