Worker held captive by colleagues, court told

DUBAI // Two Bangladeshis kept a co-worker prisoner for three days, beating him, making him drink their urine and threatening to cut him up "into little pieces", a court was told yesterday. SH, 30, and MH, 32, held their compatriot, MN, 28, because they thought he had told the authorities that they were running a brothel, court records said. At the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance, SH denied illegally confining MN. MH was not present. The defendants were also charged with illegally residing in the country.

The men's motive, according to court documents, was that MN was trying to use the brothel accusation as leverage for them to drop a labour case filed against their sponsor. MN told prosecutors that he went to meet the defendants on a work-related issue and was attacked by several men, who were not apprehended. He was blindfolded and taken to a villa in Sharjah. He said he was beaten and abused by the group for three days.

"They urinated in glasses and forced me to drink it," MN told prosecutors. The defendants were claiming that he was a police informant and one threatened to "cut him into little pieces", MN said. The trial was adjourned until September 26. @Email:amustafa@thenational.ae