DUBAI // An unemployed man threatened to kill a worker he robbed twice to keep him quiet about the crimes, a court heard this morning.
The Emirati 21-year-old AA did not appear in the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance to enter a plea. Prosecutors charged him with threatening AE, 43, Bangladeshi, robbing him and damaging his mobile phone.
EA told prosecutors that about 8am on July 4, as he was walking towards a restaurant near Nad Rashid Market, AA and another man approached him.
"He asked me where I was going," EA said.
AA pushed EA in the chest, then took about Dh500 and two mobile phones from his pockets.
"He damaged one and then threatened to kill me if I reported him to police," EA said.
Passersby who witnessed the incident called police, who took EA to the Rashidiyah police station. EA told officers there he had been bullied by AA before and was scared to report him.
"He came to my residence with other men and put a knife to my throat, telling me to remain silent, then stole Dh3,000 from the room," EA said.
EK, 46, Bangladeshi, a driver who witnessed the incident, testified that he heard AA tell EA he would return every week to take Dh500. EA, he said, begged AA to give back the money as he was a poor man and took care of his ill mother.
The next hearing will be on October 5.
salamir@thenational.ae