A Dubai policeman and his friend who burgled the home of a woman who refused to marry him have had their one year prison sentence reduced by more than half.
Prosecutors said that in September 2016, the policeman, along with his friend, and a fellow officer stole 10 smartphones, an iPad, two cameras, 16 watches, a TV and jewellery after breaking into the house where the woman lived with her family in Al Barsha.
The three Emirati men, aged between 22 and 26, denied charges of burglary and damaging property in both Dubai Criminal Court and the Court of Appeal.
Dubai Criminal Court convicted the policeman and his friend while the 26-year-old other officer was cleared of all charges for lack of evidence.
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Read more: Dubai policeman ‘burgled family’s home after being told he could not marry their daughter’
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The 33-year-old Emirati woman, who married another, said she and her family left their home on September 7, 2016 and returned a week later to find it ransacked.
"We called police and they told us that thieves broke into the house through the living room window," said the woman, a public department employee.
Officers used the serial number to track her husband's stolen phone to the policemen's friend. The friend told police he found the phone in the desert but later said he bought it from one of the policemen.
"When we investigated with the officer, he also claimed he found it in the desert, but following further investigations it turned out that they stole it from the house," said an Emirati policeman.
He said that when he questioned the policeman, he told him he burgled the house because the woman's family rejected his request to marry the woman and gave her hand in marriage to another man.
"He told me that they sold most of the stolen items and split the profit," said the officer.
The pair appealed their one year jail sentence at Dubai Court of Appeal which reduced their prison terms to three months each.
