On Tuesday, Dubai's Court of First Instance sentenced a 29-year-old Egyptian man to three years in prison for kidnapping seven housemaids from Dubai International Airport (DXB).
The unemployed accused was found guilty on charges of kidnap, unlawful deprivation of freedom, as well as fraud, embezzlement, and forgery, according to The National.
Public prosecution records dating back to August 2017 show that the Egyptian national, who was a UAE-resident at the time, managed to kidnap the seven Asian women after falsely claiming that he was a Public Relations Officer (PRO) from their recruitment office.
He subsequently seized their passports and took them to several rooms in Dubai where he held them captive until he offered the victims to work for different families across the emirates.
"We were waiting for the office PRO but the accused came and took our passports and mobile phones. He took us to a flat in Dubai and told us we can't go outside. We stayed there for three days before we managed to escape," a 35-year-old Indonesian maid, who was also kidnapped, told Khaleej Times.
In addition, the perpetrator embezzled money from more than four men after showing them forged employment contracts of the maids.
During questioning at the time of his arrest, he admitted kidnapping the maids and offering them to families because he was in debt and needed money.
The 29-year-old Egyptian will be deported upon completion of his jail sentence.