Three expats jailed for hustling
Three African expatriates have been sentenced to a year in prison for coercing and beating people and taking away cash from them.
The court ruled that the sentencing be kept in suspension for three years and the trio be deported with immediate effect.
Details of the case suggest that one of the convicts ran a private taxi illegally by using a rented car.
Once the three were in the car and offered a man walking on the street a ride for QR4.
The man agreed and got in. He had a small bag carrying QR5,500. The man got down where he was to, but forgot to pick up the bag from the taxi.
One of the convicts saw it after the man had left and asked his friends to call him back, saying he had left a bag behind and that there was cash in it.
The other two Africans suggested they remain quiet and that they split the cash among them.
Meanwhile, the man kept an occasional watch in the area where he had seen the trio in the car when they had offered him a ride.
As luck would have it, a little later, he saw one of them driving the same car. He intercepted him and picked up a quarrel.
People gathered and as they intervened to disperse them, the African fled, but not before the victim had memorised the car’s number.
He filed a police complaint and it turned out that the car belonged to a rent-a-car company. The African who had taken the car on rent was soon identified.
Police told the victim that there were several complaints against the African and two of his accomplices that they had beaten up people and forcibly taken away cash from them.
The African was arrested and during interrogation he admitted that he had two fellow Africans as accomplices and that they had on several occasions beaten up people and taken away cash from them forcibly.
He also confessed that he used the rented car as a private taxi in violation of local laws. His accomplices were also arrested.
Charges were filed against the trio and they were put on trial, Al Sharq reported yesterday.
