Donors pay Dh215,000; end jailed man's ordeal

Two unknown donors paid Dh215,000 to end the ordeal of an innocent Emirati young man who said from prison last week that his life had been shattered because of a forged cheque, a newspaper said on Thursday.

The Dubai-based Emirat Alyoum Arabic language daily said it had spearheaded a donation drive to free Khaled Eid Mahboub who had been released from a Sharjah prison only to land in another jail in Dubai before he was moved to a Sharjah jail again.

The paper said Dh165,000 was paid by one donor while Dh50,000 was provided by another person, adding that the sum was needed by Mahboub to pay debt to banks after it accumulated because of his imprisonment.

“I am extremely happy to leave prison after spending all this time behind bars away from my family and all those who I love,” he told the paper.

Mahboub, 30, was thrown into prison in Sharjah after an unknown man filed a court case accusing him of issuing a dud cheque for Dh290,000.

After spending some months in jail, he lost his job as a police man, his thriving car rent business was shut and his family life was destroyed after he was forced to divorce his wife and lose custody of his two daughters, aged 9 and 6 years.

When he was released from prison after forensic experts found that his signature on the cheque was forged, he had already lost every thing.

“I lost my family and my job…my car rent business came to a complete standstill and I have no idea where my 41 cars are now,” he said.

“I don’t know that person who filed a case against me and I have never seen him in my life…I told police that I have never signed a cheque for Dh290,000,” he was quoted as saying by the Dubai-based Emirat Alyoum newspaper.

Soon after he was out of jail, Mahboub started to receive a barrage of letters from banks asking him to pay back car loans.

While he has managed to reach a settlement with some banks, other institutions rejected any deal with him, so was back in jail.

Mahboub, who returned to Ajman, did not say whether he would be back to his family and revive his car rent business after his release.