"Dubai Criminal Court" sentenced them to 3 years in prison... and the "appeal" reduced the sentence

“Bad friends” exchange accusations before the prosecution

The two defendants retracted their statements before the Dubai Criminal Court.

Photography: Patrick Castillo

The bad friendship between two young men (Gulf Arabs) revealed its true meaning, when each of them turned on the other during their investigation into a crime of forced theft. The other, and concludes that they are responsible for all the acts committed even if some of them were not committed, and convicted them of stealing a wallet containing an amount of 7,000 dirhams under duress, and sentenced them to three years in prison.

According to the lawsuit papers, two young (Gulf) friends agreed to steal people's money on the public road, and while they were wandering in the car of one of them's father, they spotted a person inside his car in one of the public parking lots. Then the accused tried to punch him, but he avoided the attack. The accused noticed that there was a wallet in the car door from the inside, so he stole it and ran away with his friend.

The papers stated that the defendants then proceeded to a petrol station in the Nad al-Hamar area, and one of them used the credit card that was in the victim’s wallet to purchase some items from the station’s store. Follow them from their arrival point to the petrol station.

A witness from the Dubai Police stated in the investigations of the Public Prosecution that immediately after reporting the incident, the two accused used a bank card belonging to the victim in a purchase from a petrol station. I immediately identified the owner, and it was ascertained that his son was driving it, so he was arrested.

By asking the first accused about the incident, he stated that he had friendship with the second accused, and they were cruising together in his father’s car, and his friend asked him to stop near a vehicle that was standing in a public parking early on the day of the incident, and he came down and asked him to leave the place and he would catch up with him, and he returned five minutes later in a taxi, He told him that he stole the victim's wallet after hitting him, pointing out that he asked his friend for a sum of money to buy some items, so he gave him a bank card belonging to the victim, which he used to make purchases.

For his part, the second accused lied his friend’s story, and decided in the Public Prosecution’s investigations that he was accompanied by the latter in his father’s car, and then his friend spotted a car parked in a public parking lot, so he stopped and asked him to wait in the car, got off and surprised the victim and stole his wallet, and they stopped in The station and used the card in the purchases.

In addition, the two accused retracted their statements before the Criminal Court and denied the accusations against them, and their defense tried to question the evidence, and the lawyer of one of them argued that the coercion element in the crime of theft was absent.

For its part, after examining the case and the confessions of the accused at one stage of the case, the court concluded that there was an element of coercion, and that the element of fraud was not available, according to the accusations made by the Public Prosecution, and it did not pay attention to the defendants’ denials and their attempt to accuse the other, and decided to convict them and punish them with three years imprisonment. And a fine of 8,223 dirhams.

In addition, the two defendants appealed the verdict before the Court of Appeal, which concluded that they were also convicted, and clemency was used and the penalty was reduced to one year's imprisonment with the prescribed fine.

• The two accused stole a wallet and used the credit card to buy some things.

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