DUBAI // Five men threatened a hotel receptionist with tear gas and knives before stealing Dh17,000, the Criminal Court heard today.
W?M, 20, and A?M, 22, Emirati brothers, A?S, 36, a Comoros Island passport holder, and a fourth man, were arrested after footage of the raid was found on the hotel’s surveillance camera. A fifth suspect is still at large.
DNA samples taken from the scenes of previous armed robberies were matched to the four.
Prosecutors said that the raid took place near midnight on November 30 last year. The five men went to the Relax Hotel in Naif, where the girlfriend of one of the men worked as a prostitute.
They pretended to be policemen and demanded the receptionist hand them the passport of one of the hotel’s female workers.
They then threatened him before rifling through his desk and finding an envelope that contained Dh17,605.
“One of them stood outside the counter and another came inside and started going through things, when I grabbed the phone to call the manager they stopped me and one ordered me to look at his hands. When I did so, I saw two small knives so I was afraid,” said the receptionist M?E, from India.
W?M, A?M and A?S were charged with armed robbery but none were present to enter a plea. The next hearing was scheduled for July 15. The fourth suspect is on trial at the Juvenile Court.
salamir@thenational.ae
