Dubai visitor robbed, filmed naked on 'Tinder date'

A Dubai tourist was lured into a flat after he met a woman online. But instead of meeting his Tinder date, he was held up against his will, stripped naked and filmed. He was also robbed of his bank cards at knifepoint.
The Dubai Court of First Instance heard the case in which a 32-year-old African saleswoman is accused- together with runaway accomplices - of imprisoning the tourist, a European, and threatening him with a knife. They forcibly removed his clothes and filmed him naked. They threatened they would circulate his photos and videos and would defame him in an assault case if he sought police help. The group made several purchases with the stolen cards.
The incident was reported at Bur Dubai police station on December 26 last year. Public prosecution records show that the victim was held captive for several hours.
The victim, a 36-year-old European tourist, recounted to the investigators how he had met a person on Tinder. "That person claimed to be a Brazilian woman. She invited me to meet her at 9pm on December 25 last year at a hotel apartment in Business Bay."
When he entered the flat, three women and three men tied him up and stripped him of his clothes. "I was beaten when I tried to run out. They threatened to kill me. They had a knife. They took three bank cards and forced me to reveal the PINs," he said.
They left the place telling him to take a shower. "It was then around 4.30am the next day. I found later they had withdrawn Dh19,552 and made several purchases," the tourist recalled.
During investigation, the defendant admitted that she was with the others in the hotel apartment where they assaulted the victim. "I had met them last December near a shopping centre in Sharjah. I told them I was looking for a job. They asked me to book a hotel room."
She recounted how one of the other women led the victim to the flat while talking to him on the phone. Right after getting inside the room, the man got beaten, stripped naked and threatened with a knife.
The victim identified the accused when her passport photo was shown to him.
He got a medical report for the injuries he sustained because of the assault.
The trial has been postponed to September 2.  
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai

Marie Nammour

mary@khaleejtimes.com