Five men appear before court for Dubai gold robbery

Five men have appeared before court in Dubai accused of robbing AED8 million ($2 million) worth of gold from a trader, daily newspaper Gulf News reported.

The five defendants were reported to have followed the Malian trader, identified as A. N., from Dubai International Airport to his hotel in Deira, where they beat him and used pepper spray to stop him from identifying them.

The report said the defendants, four Nigerians and a Cameroonian aged between 26 and 42, confessed to the crime when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance.

The victim recounted his ordeal in court, saying he chased the assailants.

“We arrived at Dubai airport around 1am and we had six bags that contained 210 kilograms of gold. We reached the hotel around 3am. I was standing at the reception doing the check-in procedures and my bag was between my legs. A man suddenly came and pushed me. Then he grabbed the bag and started to run away. I chased him until the entrance of the hotel when two other men blocked my way and pushed me down on the floor. They assaulted me and ran away as well,” A. N. was reported as saying.

“I stood up and continued chasing my assailants… but I couldn’t keep up with them since they were faster. My partners and I spotted the assailants taking off in a red car. However, we took the plate number and reported [the incident] to the police. Police tracked down the car number and discovered that the car was rented from Sharjah. Police checked the airport’s surveillance cameras and the hotel and spotted clear images of the defendants,” he added.

An Emirati policeman testified that the five suspects were arrested at their residence in Sharjah. The policeman also added: “We found two of the stolen gold plates hidden inside the radio’s speakers. During questioning, the suspects confessed that ten other plates were available in a cargo company waiting to be consigned to their families. They had planned to sell the plates and divide the money among them.”

The judgement for the case will be heard on March 11.