Man who molested a tourist after tricking him into going to a Dubai hotel has jail term upheld

The Portuguese victim was lured to a hotel room after the man sent him a picture of a woman on WhatsApp

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One of two men sentenced to jail for luring a man into a hotel room and then molesting and robbing him had his sentence upheld on Thursday.

The Nigerian pair, aged 31 and 33, were convicted of theft, sexual assault and breaching the modesty of a person and were sentenced to a year in jail each by Dubai Criminal Court.

The 31-year-old had his appeal rejected by Dubai Court of Appeal on Thursday.

The men lured the Portuguese tourist to visit their hotel room after he had interacted with what he thought was a woman with a beautiful profile picture on the WhatsApp messaging service.

The victim was forced to strip naked while he was filmed before he was robbed.

He said he had been chatting with the “woman” and, after he arrived in the UAE, she sent him her picture and location. He agreed to meet in her hotel room in Oud Metha on February 18.

“When I got there, a big woman with tattoos opened the door for me then two men appeared and attacked me,” the Portuguese said. “They stripped me naked and filmed a video of me naked.”

He said the pair assaulted him then threatened to post the recording online if he did not give up his money and credit cards. After he handed them over he was locked in the toilet.

“I didn’t hear their voices after about 15 minutes so I got out of the toilet then called police,” he said.

The pair took Dh2,500 in cash and used the man’s card to withdraw cash then bought Dh7,000 worth of items using his credit card.

A policeman said the pair’s ploy was to hunt down victims through social media after posing as a beautiful woman offering sex for money.

Police arrested the men after tracking them down using the documents they used to rent the hotel room.

The defendants denied charges of theft, sex assault and breaching the modesty of a person when they appeared at Dubai Criminal Court.

However, they were both convicted of all charges and sentenced to a year in jail, to be followed by deportation.