Court acquits manager of Dh500,000 bribe charge

The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance acquitted an Iranian executive manager from offering Dh500,000 bribe to an employee for the cancellation of property fines.

The 32-year-old accused WM, denied the accusation during investigations and Court hearings and his lawyer had defended that the sales executive is not in charge of cancelling such fines. The manager was cheated by the sales executive who told him that he will try to cancel the fines at the time that he should have refuse to accept any bribe. He dragged the leg of the accused at the time that he is not authorized to cancel any fine after notifying the police who arranged with him to arrest the accused red handed.

The Court based in its rule on the fact that the accusation had based on oral evidence and that his confession was made only to policemen who arrested him. But he later denied the confession before the Prosecution and the Court.

The Court suspected the testimony of the complainant and also mentioned in its ruling that the testimony of the policeman had based on the information he got from the complainant himself.
 
According to the records, WN, 40, Colombian, sales executive at a major development company testified that together with his senior in last May had a meeting with a representative of real estate investors who failed to pay installments on time.

“The investors failed to pay a total of Dh11.5m installments and the accumulated fines of delay. My senior informed the representative that the investors will be sued. A few days later, I received a call from the representative asking me for a meeting outside the company. I refused and asked him to come to the office. He came to the office and asked me to waive the fines for three lands and offered the payment of Dh200,000 as a bribe. I told him that this is illegal and even though pretended that I will think of the matter and reply to him later. I informed the legal affairs department who asked me to go ahead with him in order to arrest him red handed.

During a month of negotiations the representative agreed to raise the bribe amount to Dh500,000.

“We met in a hotel where he handed me over Dh400,000 put in a bag and I handed him documents prove the waiver of Dh3.7m fines. Provided that he will hand over Dh100,000 after  checking the authenticity of the documents with the company. I gave the agreed upon signal to the police who were observing the scene,” testified the sales executive.

The 32-year-old accused WM, told investigators that he was assigned by a company to finish the problem of the developer and to obtain the three lands ownership certificate.

The buyers of the three lands claimed that he had paid the installments on time and that the payments were not registered in the developer’s record. A court case on this regard had been heard in 2009 and was still pending.

“I was asked to settle the issue with the developer before the date of the Court hearing. I told the investors that Dh1m is needed to clear the issue and got from them approval to proceed with the bribe,” WM told investigators.

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