You are hereIn the news (UAE)
In the news (UAE)
Geographical Focus: United Arab Emirates
1st, 2nd & 3rd Quarter, 2008
For the purposes of self protection, it is important to be well informed about our environment and what's happening around us. We can use this information to make informed decisions on what risks we take or avoid. Generally speaking, there is a lot of information available to us from various sources, such as tv news channels and local news papers, the personal experiences of friends and colleagues, and crime statistics if published by the local police.
The intention of In the news is to highlight some of the security and safety issues and problems that surround us in our daily lives, whether visible or behind the scenes, and to remind ourselves that complacency kills!
SMAC website members are encouraged to contribute with news articles and research (please quote sources when submitting), as well as personal views and opinions. In the UAE, crime statistics are not available to the general public and press coverage is limited at best. What you read here is only the tip of the iceberg.
I would also like to point out that due to time constraints, most articles posted here are taken directly from media sources without edit and therefore any lack of taste in their reporting style regarding race, religion, and sex, some may find offensive. Apologies in advance for our lack of regulation in this regard.
The primary focus of this section is the U.A.E. though topics of interest reported in other locations may also be included.
The relatives of a woman who has been missing for 11 days after she was beaten with a baseball bat and driven away in her own car are still desperately searching for her across Dubai. Kerry Winter, 35, has not been seen or heard of since she was brutally attacked outside her rented villa in Al Barsha on August 20. Witnesses say she was struck over the head with the bat and was bleeding before being forced into a vehicle and driven off.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/en/2008/08/31/still-searching.html
An alleged assault by a UAE national on a Saudi woman forced a flight from Munich to Dubai to make an unscheduled stop in Turkey, it was revealed yesterday. The assault is alleged to have happened on an Emirates flight after an argument between a UAE national family and a Saudi couple, who were returning from honeymoon. The two parties fell out after a disagreement about the Emirati family’s chairs reclining too far, causing discomfort for the Saudis. Matters escalated and the father of the Emirati family is alleged to have lost his temper and lashed out - punching the new bride twice in the face.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=78078
A man went on trial yester-day for assaulting a labourer with a rock and smashing his victim’s teeth with it. The 27-year-old Bangladeshi suspect was charged at the Dubai Court of First Instance with assaulting his compatriot with help from two other suspects, and also of illegally staying in the country. According to police reports, the 38-year-old victim was walking in the Naif area of Dubai when an argument ensued between him and the suspect. “He was with two other men and they held me from behind, and then the suspect smashed my teeth in and broke bones in my face,” the victim said in the official records. Medical reports said that the victim can’t chew his food properly because of the assault.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77959
A policeman has gone on trial in Dubai after being accused of stealing a prisoner’s possessions. The 30-year-old Yemeni was caught out after a Spanish prisoner handed some items in when he was taken into custody.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77911
A thief who carried out 11 night-time robberies in villas and houses in Dubai, has been arrested by police.Police swooped after they received tip-offs about the break-in’s in the Emirates Hills and Arabian Ranches areas, when owners were away on their summer holidays.“He managed to steal jewellery, mobile phones, cameras and laptops,” an official at Dubai Police said. Police set a trap for the suspect in the Hor Al-Anz area, where they arrested him. The suspect confessed to the robberies and has been referred to Public Prosecution.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77745
A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the sickening rape of a work colleague who was too weak from recent surgery to fight him off. The guilty man, a 46-year-old Indian, attacked his victim, 21, as he slept in a Dubai labour camp last November. “I had just had surgery on my stomach and I was still recovering when he woke me up and asked to have sex with me,” the victim said in the court records. “He pinned me and raped me and I tried to resist him but I couldn't because of the pain from the operation. It was a nightmare because nobody heard me asking for help,” he added.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77744
Two men were each sentenced to three years in jail yesterday for a botched kidnapping and ransom demand.Their victim, an Indian, was accosted by the men in the Refa’a area of Dubai in May.They stole dhs14,600 from him and then phoned this brother and demanded dhs5,000 or they would cut off his head.The brother immediately contacted the police who set a trap for the kidnappers and they were arrested.The guilty men, one Iranian and one Indian, will be deported after serving their sentences.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77684
A teenage girl who was trapped in a lift by a man who was trying to sexually molest her escaped by hitting her attacker between the legs, a Dubai court heard yesterday. The Jordanian girl was on her way home from school when she stepped into the lift of her apartment block in Bur Dubai. “The suspect was inside the elevator already” her father said in the court records. “When the doors opened, he blocked the way and hugged her from behind. ”But the girl reacted by punching him twice between the legs and once in the stomach before running to her parents’ apartment.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77686
A man was kidnapped, blindfolded and robbed of dhs15,000 by a gang who also threatened to kill him for his cash. Three men have been arrested by Dubai Police in relation to the incident which took place on August 9. The victim had been carrying out a transaction in Al Baraha - an area in Dubai known by police to be notorious for illegal cash deals. “He was tailed...” said Colonel Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, deputy director of Criminal Investigations Department (CID). “They ambushed him at around 1am and forced him into a waiting car ... which had two other occupants inside,” he said. He was then covered with a hood and was told he would be killed if he tried to raise the alarm.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77574
Monarchies in the Gulf chided Iran yesterday for setting up facilities on an island claimed by the UAE, two days after Abu Dhabi protested to Tehran over the move. Gulf Cooperation Council secretary general Abdurrahman al-Attiyah “strongly denounced Iran’s opening of two administrative offices on Abu Musa island, which belongs to the UAE and is occupied by Iran”, a GCC statement said. The Iranian measure constitutes an “illegitimate action on an indivisible part of the UAE”, he said, calling for it to be revoked. Attiyah renewed the GCC’s support for the UAE’s “full sovereignty” over Abu Musa as well as over Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb - two other strategic Gulf islands controlled by Iran and claimed by Abu Dhabi.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77556
A man was sentenced to three months in prison yesterday after being found guilty of attempting to sexually abuse an 11-year-old boy. The 22-year-old Indian approached the youngster in the toilets at a mall in Bur Dubai. “I was washing my hands when the suspect started showing me his muscles,” the victim said. “I didn’t respond but he stood behind me and start massaging my arms and shoulders. I resisted him but he tried to open my trouser zip."
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77376
Six youngsters who were stranded in the desert for hours were rescued after they lit a fire to alert police to their position. The incident happened after the six became stuck. “They told us that their car was trapped in the sand. They didn’t know where to go or how reach the main road,” Captain Khaled Ibraheem from Dubai Police said. “The problem was that they sent us the wrong details because they didn’t know how to use the GPS. ”Fortunately one of the stranded group eventually lit a fire which guided officers from the Difficult Missions squad to the thankful party.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77373
A mechanic went on trial yesterday accused of sexually assaulting a Filipino woman after offering her a lift home.“He wanted to pay to have sex with me,” the woman said. “He locked his car then he stopped it and molested me.”The suspect, a Pakistani, denies the charges.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77111
A man who stole jewellery worth dhs1.5 million from his employer while working as a cleaner has been arrested. He had been hired for a wage of just dhs1,000 per month and after only one week had disappeared with the jewellery.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=77067
A Briton confessed that he walked around a supermarket secretly filming up womens’ skirts in the Court of First Instance yesterday. The 28-year-old admitted that he put the camera in his trolley at Carrefour in Bur Dubai and pursued women wearing short skirts.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76971
A Pakistani driver has been sentenced to six months in jail followed by deportation for sexually molesting a Filipina. According to police reports, the 25-year-old minibus driver, was taking his victim home at 1am after her shift working in a shop in Bur Dubai when the attack happened. She told the court that when she was the last person on the bus, the driver approached her and demanded to have sex. When she refused, the driver then sexually molested her.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76862
A man yesterday told police he had stabbed his brother to death during a family argument. Ibrahim Kutty is accused of killing 40-year-old brother, Mohammed, at the flat they shared in the Al Nuaimi area on Monday.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76795
A Lebanese pop star who had been in hiding for eight months, has been found stabbed to death in Dubai. Suzan Tamim’s body was discovered in an apartment in Rimal 1 tower, part of Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR)... They were yesterday questioning two people in relation to her death. It is believed Tamim was stabbed with a knife.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76807
A four-man gang was picked up by Ajman police yesterday in connection with the assault and robbery of an American businessman. The four, all Russian, are alleged to have attacked the victim at his apartment in the Al Nakheel Area on Ajman corniche two weeks ago. Large amounts of gold and diamonds, as well as $40,000 in cash, were stolen during the raid. “They pushed him inside his house, assaulted him and tied his legs and hands together with tape,” a spokesman for Ajman police said. The victim was tied up for three hours before he was rescued.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76700
A perverted motorist got out of his car, groped a woman’s bottom and then drove off after claiming he was a police officer, a court heard yesterday.The Emirati suspect, 23, who works for the Roads and Transport Authority is alleged to have assaulted the woman after he saw her walking out of a hotel in the Refa’a area of Dubai.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76698
A motorist was killed instantly on Emirates Road yesterday when he was hit by a speeding minibus after stepping out of his car to inspect the damage inflicted in a previous accident.The Asian victim, 35, had lost control of his vehicle moments earlier, swerving into the central barriers before regaining control of the wheel.He immediately stopped his car in the third lane of the motorway, where he was hit by the minibus and his body was thrown 128m down the road.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76650
A man stabbed a work colleague after the pair had become embroiled in a drunken argument, a court heard yesterday. The attack occurred in the labour camp where both men lived. The victim said he was surprised to be confronted by the defendant outside his room. “He then stabbed me in my chest and stomach and I yelled and other men rushed to help me,” the victim said in the records.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76502
A man who was asked to turn off the TV by his roommate who was trying to sleep responded by punching him in the face in a fit of rage, a Dubai court heard yesterday.The court was told that the victim was attempting to get to sleep at around midnight in his room in Al Qusais when the incident occurred.“I asked him to turn off the TV and sleep but he refused. Then suddenly I was surprised when he punched me in my face and broke my teeth,” the victim said.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76408
A man grabbed a Filipina’s breast as she entered a nightclub before falling to the floor, kissing her feet and begging her not to go to the police, a court heard yesterday. The incident occurred in April when the 25-year-old woman left the club in the Refa’a area of Dubai. “He touched my breast for a few seconds and laughed,” the victim said in the court records.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76279
A man went on trial yesterday for attacking an off-duty policeman with a sword as he ate at a top hotel in Dubai. The 37-year-old Emirati went on trial at Dubai Court of First Instance for assault.According to the records, the 26-year-old victim went to a restaurant in a five star hotel in Deira, where an argument ensued between him and his alleged attacker. “He raised a small sword and hit me and I protected myself using my left hand."
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76362
Dubai Public Prosecution has referred an Emirati footballer to court for allegedly firing a gun to scare a man into kissing the foot of his friend.The unnamed footballer, who plays for a Dubai-based club, was charged with illegal possession of a weapon, endangering life and threatening behaviour.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76360
A gang fight left five men injured after they were attacked with swords and iron bars in Satwa. The injured were set upon as they sat in a Jeep herokee vehicle.One man was arrested following the disturbance in February and is now on trial accused of wounding and damaging a vehicle. All the men involved were Emiratis.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76216
Doctors are warning of the health dangers of the extreme summer temperatures as scores of people have recently been admitted to hospital with heat exhaustion, with one fatality already this week.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76184
Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women in the most populous Arab country, and a majority say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a new survey has revealed. The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women and shouting sexually explicit remarks.“
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76181
I am writing this from Switzerland, considered a "safe' country." I came here with my husband and two-year-old as a tourist from Dubai. We decided to take a peek at the much-hyped "Jazz Festival" in the town of Montreux this evening. Just as we settled in to eat in the benches provided near the food-stalls (barely 50 metres from a police guard!), my toddler threw a tantrum and needed urgent attention from my husband and I. After she settled down, we decided to return home only to discover, to my horror, that my bag had been stolen. It was a very quick job done by someone who knew our attention was elsewhere (on our wailing toddler). In the bargain, I have lost my wallet containing my credit/debit cards (almost 15 minutes spent on the phone with my bank in just getting them to block the cards as we were kept on hold on an international roaming line!), money (the very expensive EUROS!), my UAE Driving licence(wonder how to get that re-issued), Health Insurance Cards, valuable pictures of our trip on the Digi Cam, etc to name a few. Always heard that Switzerland was "safe" and "tourist-friendly" but if any of your readers are planning to visit, let them be warned. In my many years in the UAE, I can proudly say, I have never lost or been robbed of anything, however, whenever I have travelled outside, I have returned with a bad experience. As UAE residents we do take safety for granted but it is not so elsewhere.
Posted by 7Days reader
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75876
This posting on 7Days by a reader from dubai after having visited Switzerland on holiday and becoming the victim of a opportunist theft offers some interesting insight that we might all learn a lesson from. (the lesson is not that Switzerland is dangerous and Dubai is safe as she seems to be trying to point out!)
Firstly, it demonstrates the typical victim state, a state of complacency that criminals look for when choosing their targets, the state known as code white to our regulars. Second, she highlights the impact of such a crime and the very reason why we would want to avoid becoming a victim; clearly it is worth while taking steps to avoid becoming a victim even though it is non-violant in nature - it just isn't worth the hassle. Thirdly, it highlights a typical and very common mode of operation used by the opportunist criminal (even in Dubai) - if your goodes are on display, don't look away!
A teenager’s head was used as a puppet and bowling ball after a “thrill kill” carried out during a drinking binge, an Australian court has heard... He had been stabbed more than 133 times and his head had been sawed off.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76067
A man was sentenced to 18 years in jail followed by deportation yesterday for raping a woman at knifepoint. The 41-year-old Turkish man was found guilty at the Dubai Court of First Instance of raping the 29-year-old Filipino waitress at her residence in Jebel Ali. He was also charged with assault, stealing, consuming liquor and illegal entry.
According to police reports, last July, the victim was woken up by the half-naked attacker in her room. “He was holding a knife and it scared me. He yelled ‘don’t shout, I will kill you’, and I was afraid,” the victim said in the records.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76079
Police have hit out at eyewitnesses for failing to come forward after a violent carjacking and robbery left a businessman dead and the offenders getting away with dhs330,000 in stolen cash. What police first thought was a hit-and-run car accident, turned out to be a pre-meditated attack... the Indian victim had just withdrawn the money from a bank in the Al Awir district of Dubai. As he drove away, his vehicle was struck from behind by a white Toyota Prado with two men inside. The father-of-one climbed out of his vehicle to inspect the damage and was deliberately run over by the driver of the Prado, while the passenger leapt into his car and sped off with the money.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76054
An Egyptian man was sentenced to life in prison followed by deportation for murdering another man with a knife, the Dubai Court of First Instance ruled yesterday. According to police records, in April the American victim approached the 26-year-old Egyptian at a bus stop, and asked him to accompany him to his hotel room in Deira.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=76028
A man went on trial yesterday for killing his father with a hammer after an argument over money. The 29-year-old Pakistani man was charged with murdering his father, who was partially paralysed and in a wheelchair. The suspect confessed to the charges and told police that a dispute over money had caused the incident.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75971
Three men allegedly ripped off the shirt of a Filipino woman at a nightclub, leaving her topless in full view of the clubbers, a Dubai Court of First Instance has heard. The three Sri Lankans were charged with sexually molesting the 32-year-old saleswoman, as well as insulting her and also consuming alcohol.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75914
A doctor has been sentenced to three months in jail followed by deportation for sexually molesting a female patient, a Dubai Court of First Instance has ruled. The 45-year-old Egyptian doctor has to pay dhs21,000 temporary compensation, and the case is to be referred to the Civil Court for greater compensation. According to the records, in March, the 31-year-old British woman went to the doctor’s private clinic in the Mankhol area in Dubai, where he touched her inappropriately and made suggestive remarks. Public prosecution found two images of a woman’s body on the doctor’s mobile phone plus video footage of an unknown woman having a medical exam.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75915
A man went on trial at the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday for attempting to rob a Pakistani boy at knifepoint. The 29-year-old suspect threatened the 17-year-old victim at Satwa bus station, but before handing over any cash, the boy managed to escape and inform police. The suspect, also charged with consuming alcohol, denies the charges.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75828
An Asian man has been sentenced by Dubai Court of First Instance to three years in jail followed by deportation for murdering a compatriot with an iron bar. According to police reports, the guilty man himself called in the murder, claiming that he had found his ‘friend’ dead outside the labour camp. Police immediately suspected the story was false after noticing blood on the callers’ shoes. The man confessed after police questioned him. He revealed that he had attacked the victim with an iron bar after he had woken from sleeping off liquor to find the man sexually molesting him. After a heated argument, the two men fought, and the victim initially escaped and ran off. But the murderer caught up, and beat him over the head several times.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75827
Anger in the workplace - employees and employers who are grumpy, insulting, short-tempered or worse - is growing in the United States as people cope with woes of rising costs or overwhelming debt, experts say. Nearly half of US workers report yelling and verbal abuse on the job, with roughly a quarter saying it has driven them to tears, research at the University of South Florida has shown. Other research showed one-sixth of workers reported anger at work has led to property damage, while a tenth reported physical violence and fear their workplace might not be safe.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75791
The wife of a 70-year-old Emirati and her lover are under investigation for murder after the husband was found dead in suspicious circumstances. According to police records, they received a call from the 39-year-old Filipino wife in the Bani Yas area of Abu Dhabi that her husband had died while sleeping. But after police noticed bruising on the victim’s neck, the wife claimed his son from a previous marriage had killed him.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75752
A drunk British man sparked a bomb alert on an Emirates Airline flight from Manchester to Dubai yesterday, after a heated row with cabin crew. “We can confirm there was an incident involving a passenger aboard EK20 from Manchester after it had landed safely in Dubai,” an Emirates official said, adding that the passenger had an argument with one of the crew and then claimed a bomb was on the aircraft.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75769
A man was sentenced to ten years in jail yesterday for strangling his wife after catching her with another man. The Indian, 38, had returned to his home in Muraqqabat last December when he heard his wife talking to someone. As he walked further into the house he saw a man sitting talking to his wife, who, he alleges, was dressed in a skimpy outfit. After the adulterer ran away, the man tried to strangle his wife with his hands before picking up a piece of cloth and strangling her again until she died.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75714
A woman stabbed her two daughters before turning the knife on herself after her husband said he wanted to leave her, sources at Dubai Public Prosecution told 7DAYS yesterday. Officials said the Indian woman, 24, is charged with murdering her three-year-old daughter and attempting to murder her other daughter, two, who survived. The child has been left with a permanent disability after the attack. The woman claimed to police that her husband regularly beat her and had threatened to divorce her, and that two days before the attack in March the pair had a huge row.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75664
A suspected Indian pimp viciously stabbed his compatriot to death after the pair became involved in an alcohol-fuelled dispute, a Dubai court heard yesterday. Last December, the 40-year-old suspect was drinking with the victim in Satwa when they began to argue with each other. “I was watching TV when I heard the suspect and the victim yelling at each other and when I went out I saw the suspect carrying a knife and the victim bleeding,” an eye-witness said.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75566
Three men went on trial yesterday for a road rage assault. The first two suspects, one Emirati and one stateless, were charged with assaulting the third suspect, a Pakistani, and another victim and insulting them. The Pakistani man was charged with making an obscene gesture to the two suspects.A Dubai Court of First Instance heard that the Pakistani suspect was driving with his friend in the Qusais area when he saw the two suspects travelling slowly in the left lane. “I flashed them with the lights but they kept slowing down and when I tried to pass they blocked the way,” he said. “Then they got out and assaulted me and one of them stabbed my companion,” he added.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75447
A housemaid has been found guilty of endangering the life of a baby in her care, by feeding him milk mixed with her own urine for seven months.
The Asian housemaid, who believed the act would grant her special powers over the baby, and also the family - powers she would use to compel them not to fire her - was yesterday sentenced by a Dubai court of First Instance to six months in jail followed by deportation for endangering the life of the 18-month-old Emirati boy.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75445
A local man viciously beat someone with an iron car jack in a fit of road rage, believing that the man had been following him down the road, a Dubai court heard yesterday. The 21-year-old suspect, who failed to appear in court, is alleged to have blocked the victim’s car with his vehicle before confronting him in the street. “He thought that I was chasing him,” the victim said. The suspect is also alleged to have stolen a mobile phone during the assault before speeding off.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75427
Five men kidnapped two Ethiopian women before subjecting them to a horrific gang rape ordeal in the desert, a Dubai court heard yesterday. The men - three Emiratis, one Omani and one stateless - are accused of taking the women from a nightclub in Jumeirah in February.
7Days
http://www.7days.ae/showstory.php?id=75219