Trio charged for theft of Dh400,000 Swiss watch

DUBAI // A jobless Russian and his two Uzbek friends are accused of attacking an Emirati trader and stealing his Dh400,000 watch.

Prosecutors told Dubai Criminal Court that the trader bought the Swiss-made watch – one of only 88 in the world – but later decided to post it on Dubizzle for sale.

“Two days after I made the post, I received a WhatsApp message from a man interested in the watch and asking for details and more pictures of it,” said the 24-year-old Emirati.

“Later he called me and introduced himself and said he was very much interested in the watch.”

They agreed to meet at a hotel on December 23 at 6pm, he said, but the buyer called and apologised for not being there, claiming he had been in a car accident.

On December 27, the trader was again contacted by the buyer, who begged that the watch not be sold to anyone else and that he would pay in cash.

“He said that his only problem was that he can’t come to meet me due to his injuries from the car crash and asked if I could come to his Mirdif home, which I did,” said the Emirati.

He arrived and was let into the apartment.

“I felt scared for some reason and once I got in, two men attacked me, so did the fake buyer, who strangled me while the other men started punching me on the head,” said the trader.

“I fainted and woke up minutes later to find the apartment completely dark.”

He told the alleged attackers that he wanted nothing from them, just to go home. “They let me out, I ran to my car and sat for a second then I called police, who arrived to the location,” he said.

The trio, aged 24, 23 and 29, were arrested and charged with theft and physical assault.

The Russian denied all charges while the other two confessed to theft but denied physical assault.

The next hearing will be on May 14.

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