DUBAI // Three men who tried to sell a relic they claimed contained a mythical substance to undercover police for Dh25.7 million were on Monday found guilty of fraud and each fined Dh5,000.
The Dubai Court of Misdemeanours heard that D J, 45, an Emirati, A M, 65, from Sudan and H A, 38, from Saudi Arabia, were in possession of an oval-shaped artefact that supposedly contained red mercury, a chemical once believed to revoke sorcery and exorcise demons.
On March 18 last year, police met the men in a hotel near Festival City after they heard they were trying to sell the item. An officer met D J and A M and renegotiated the price down to Dh20.2 million.
D J told the court that he had bought the relic for Dh500,000 in Ghana in 2009. When asked by the prosecution about the authenticity of the relic, he said: “The pictures on the relic are from era of the Egyptian pharaohs, the original owner told me that.”
Despite this, D J told the prosecution that he could not find an expert to validate the authenticity of the relic in this country.
A M said that he was a business acquaintance of the other two defendants. D J had assured him that the relic could heal people because it contained red mercury.
D J told A M he wanted to sell it because he was in debt.
“I took the relic from D J and showed it to H A and told him that we wanted to sell it,” said A M.
He said H A then put them in touch with a buyer who, it turned out, was the undercover officer.
D J and A M were arrested two days after meeting the policeman. H A was apprehended later that night in the Al Qusais area.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
