DUBAI // Four employees at a contracting company denied stealing thousands of dirhams worth of electric cables from a work site at the Palm Jumeirah, a Dubai court heard this morning.
The men, who stood trial before the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance, also denied offering an witness Dh2,000 to not report the theft to their employer.
According to court records, the suspects, AA, 38, EB, 26, SS, 27, and WM, 26, all Indians, stole the electric cables from the construction site of the Fairmont Hotel at the Palm Jumeirah on July 1, 2010.
Records stated that on July 31, a Pakistani man, also employed at the same contracting company, discovered the cables were missing.
The man, identified in records as AN, 24, told prosecutors that when he noticed the cables were missing. He said he spotted the four suspects nearby about 8pm and asked them why they were there after hours.
AN said that when he asked the men about the missing cables, AA ordered the other three suspects to leave them alone, then offered him a Dh2,000 bribe to keep quiet.
He also said in his testimony in court records that AA showed him a video clip of himself handing an unidentified man Dh50,000 and told him he could give him some of that money.
The next morning, AN said, he found the cables hidden in a storeroom on the site, then received a phone call from AA offering him jewellery, records show.
AN informed his employer, who called the police.
Prosecutors said three of the suspects confessed after AA ordered them to do so.
A verdict is expected on March 21.
salamir@thenational.ae
