Four expats in UAE have been sentenced to three years for assaulting a woman, stripping her down, robbing her of Dh42,000 (BD4,300) and converting the amount into bitcoin.
When the victim recounted her ordeal to the police, she revealed that the incident took place after she had agreed to get into a deal with one of the gang members who said he wanted to buy digital currency.
The man she had made the agreement with was working as her driver and knew of her involvement in cryptocurrency as an investor and formulated a plan with the rest of the gang to lure her into a bogus deal and steal her money, documents at the Dubai Court of First Instance revealed.
She had agreed to meet with the man, and was surprised when she arrived at the specified location in Dubai Investments Park, to see a group of people coming towards her.
The victim told the court that the men had demanded that she transfer her money to their account.
"I was assaulted, electrocuted, stripped off my clothes, and photographed, so the pictures could be used to blackmail me," she told the authorities.
The men, all of Asian nationality, then left her on the street after several hours, with her hands tied and a plastic bag around her face.
The victim was eventually able to run to the police who tracked down the gang after reviewing the CCTV footage at the crime scene.
They also found the victim's clothes and an electric shock device in one of their homes, as well as video clips where the woman appeared naked, court documents showed.
They will be deported upon completion of their sentence.
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