'Court not relevant to hear Al Boom case'

The defence lawyer of Abed Ramadan Al Boom, who is accused of breaching the trust of 3,700 depositors for an amount of Dh1 billion, asked the Dubai Court to acquit his client and to transfer the case to the special Judicial Committee formed through the Ruler of Dubai’s decision and assigned to check and settle the defendant’s financial obligations.

Hassan Juma Al Raisi, the prime defendant’s lawyer told the jury of the Dubai Misdemeanours Court, that the decision of the Ruler of Dubai - which stated the formation of a special Judicial Committee assigned to investigate Al Boom’s financial status following the Central Bank order to block all of his and his accomplices' accounts - was issued on August 4, 2009, one day before the transfer of Al Boom to the Court.

“By that the Dubai Prosecution has violated the decision of the Ruler and transferred a case to the court and did not wait for hearing the claims by the special juditial committee,” Al Raisi argued adding, “The court is not the relevant body to hear the case.”

Al Raisi submitted to the court a portfolio of documents proving the date when Al Boom first appeared. The portfolio included the verdict that was issued by the Cassation Court in September which stated  the irrelevancy of the Cassation Court in hearing the case in which  Al Boom was accused of issuing bad cheques to Juma Al Majid Real Estate against office rent, particularly because of the issuance of the Ruler’s decision and that the case should be heard by the special Judicial Committee.

In a previous hearing of the case the court cancelled the bail of Abed Al Boom as it was proved that he did not pay $20 million into the account of the Judicial Committee assigned to settle his financial status.

In the previous hearing the court has announced receiving responses from two banks with which Al Boom has accounts and is still waiting for the rest banks to submit their reports.

Employees of Al Boom Holding who are the company’s director, MMB, 55, Malawian, accountant, MEH, 27, Egyptian, and director ZHA, 39, Somali, sales representatives: AHA, 35, ZYF, 29, and businessmen ASF, Emirati, 48, and Al Boom’s brother, Khalid, were accused of criminal complicity.

Ali Saeed Al Falasi, the defence lawyer of the eight accused, suspected the authenticity of the prosecution’s claim of transferring the case to the court on June 4, 2009 and told the court “all documents in the file defy such a claim. The prosecution should reconsider such a claim which does not have any legal basis or document. The case was referred to the court a day after the issuance of His Highness the Ruler’s decision which stated the date of issue as its enforcement date."

The court adjourned the case until December 19 for the prosecution to pursue getting replies from banks regarding Al Boom and his company’s accounts.