Dubai: A Sharjah policeman has been jailed for three years for taking Dh3,000 in bribe to release a tailor, whom he had apprehended for staying in the country illegally.

The 52-year-old Indian tailor, B.S., was apprehended somewhere between Sharjah and Dubai when his son, M.S., received a call from the policeman, Y.A., [who worked for Sharjah Police] and requested a bribe to release his father in August.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted Y.A. of abusing his position as a policeman, accepting a bribe and allowing a wanted suspect (B.S.) to evade justice.

Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal fined Y.A. Dh3,000 and ordered that he be suspended from the police force.

“The bribe money will be confiscated by the court,” said presiding judge Jamal.

According to Tuesday’s ruling, B.S., M.S. and their countryman, G.S., were each jailed for six months for aiding and abetting Y.A. and allowing B.S. to escape justice.

“They will be pardoned from serving any imprisonment connected to the crime of bribery,” said the presiding judge.

Y.A. had pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court.

Records said the convicted policeman requested Dh3,000 in bribe and allowed B.S. to walk away despite having been commissioned (by Sharjah police) to hand him over to Dubai authorities.

B.S., M.S., G.S., and a fourth unidentified suspect [who remains at large] aided and abetted Y.A. in taking the bribe and allowing the tailor [B.S.] to escape justice.

B.S. contended in court that he did not pay any money.

Y.A.’s lawyer argued in court that his client did not abuse his duties as a policeman and allow B.S. to walk away from justice.

“What really happened is not what prosecutors claimed to have had happened. My client worked at Sharjah Police and used to cooperate with an informant named Haris, who used to assist my client in apprehending illegal or wanted suspects. He did that with good intention … when Haris stopped B.S. in Dubai and handed him over to my client, the latter did not check the place of arrest. So when he handed him over to Sharjah Police, they refused to take him in due to jurisdictional purposes … he was also not tasked with handing him over to the Dubai authorities. On the contrary, he was accused of forging the arrest report [that B.S. had been detained in Sharjah] and tried before the Sharjah Court that sentenced him to seven months. He has already served his imprisonment,” the lawyer argued.

The lawyer said when his client accompanied B.S. to Dubai immigration to hand him over, they refused to take him in.

Immigration officers refused to accept B.S. because, according to the lawyer, he did not have a return ticket and his passport.

“Confused by the situation he faced after the authorities in Sharjah and Dubai refused to take B.S. into custody, Y.A. allowed him to walk. He did not know what else to do. He did not have any criminal intention,” argued the lawyer.

B.S. and his son M.S. were quoted as admitting to prosecutors that they paid Y.A. Dh3,000 as bribe.

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