Airport porter gets 3 months in jail

Dubai: A porter has been jailed for three months for opening passengers’ luggage while loading bags onto a plane bound for Casablanca and trying to steal the contents.

The Ugandan porter, K.T., was stacking luggage onto the plane at the loading bay at Dubai International Airport when security personnel spotted him on surveillance cameras opening bags and searching inside them in March.

A law enforcement officer apprehended the defendant once he saw him. The Dubai Court of First Instance found K.T. guilty of abusing his duties at a private company (tasked to move passengers’ luggage at the airport) and attempted theft.

Court records did not specify what the accused had attempted to steal.

Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the defendant, who pleaded guilty, will be deported after serving his jail term.

When he appeared in court he claimed that he had only tried to open one bag once.

A law enforcement officer based at the airport told prosecutors that he saw the defendant opening bags while checking CCTV cameras.

“My duty is to monitor the surveillance cameras at the airport’s loading bay. I spotted K.T. opening a bag and looking inside it for something while loading the luggage on to the plane heading to Casablanca. He opened the bag but did not find anything to steal,” he testified.

The porter was quoted telling the interrogating prosecutor that he opened a bag and searched inside it.

Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.