Deyaar case deferred as main witness stays away

The Dubai Criminal Court adjourned the Deyaar embezzlement case to January 26 after audit specialist Mohammed Mustafa Hussein, a prime witness in the case, failed to appear in court on Monday.

Hussein had compiled a report on financial irregularities in the case, in which MK, a former UAE minister, ZS, a US national and JM, an Indian, are implicated. JM is at large.

Hussein was to complete his presentation of the report during yesterday's hearing. The presentation began at an earlier session. In the report, he had determined the amount that MK had profiteered from and the value of resultant losses that Deyaar had incurred.

Hussein's report revealed that MK had embezzled Dh56.6 million in all and that the total losses Deyaar incurred from his malpractices amounted to Dh170.8m.

The public prosecution added a new charge to MK in his capacity as a former chairman of Deyaar, that of obtaining 380,000 shares of Tamweel and 180,000 shares of Dubai Islamic Bank. The charge was read out in court to MK yesterday, which he denied.

The defendants were represented on Monday by lawyers, Sameer Jaafar and Ali Al Shamsi while lawyer Khalid Al Hamrani argued on behalf of Deyaar.

The first defendant is out on bail but his passport has been withheld as he is a UAE national and a former minister. The second defendant is in custody pending trial in another case in which he and eight others are charged with embezzling $74m (Dh271.58m).

The prosecution had charged the minister in his capacity as Deyaar's former chairman of profiteering through his office and facilitating the embezzlement of millions of the company funds by the second defendant.

A third case, an offshoot of the present one, pertains to acceptance of bribes in which a former Deyaar board member and a businessman are charged.

The Deyaar corruption cases were made public by the Government of Dubai in the second half of 2009. Fourteen defendants have been charged in the three cases on counts of accepting bribes, betrayal of trust and embezzlement.

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