UAE | Crime
Ex-municipality chief in the dock in Fujairah on corruption charges
The high-profile corruption trial of Fujairah Municipality's former director and seven other suspects got under way on Sunday after months of rumors and uncertainties.
- By Fuad Ali, Staff Reporter
- Published: 13:19 October 26, 2008
- Image Credit: Fuad Ali/Gulf News
- The first court hearing attracted much attention and a full court room listened as one-by-one the defendants denied all charges against them.
Fujairah: The high-profile trial of Fujairah Municipality's former director, and seven other suspects in a corruption case, got underway on Sunday after months of rumours and uncertainties.
Rashid Hamdan Abdullah, 49, was unceremoniously dismissed from his post as municipality director, earlier this year, after he was embroiled in allegations that he sold government land for his personal gain. Three other Emiratis, three Egyptians and a Sudanese are also facing charges of accepting and offering bribes, falsifying official documents and assisting in the deception and fraud.
The Fujairah Public Prosecution case is based on months of interrogations of the suspects and the testimonies and evidence provided by 19 witnesses.
Their case argues that Rashid Hamdan, and the other suspects falsified applications for government land properties using the names of fictitious applicants. Some of the suspects then sold them on to unsuspecting individuals for a knock-down price.
Nearly a hundred such transactions were documented by the Public Prosecution team with witnesses stating they often paid as much as Dhs400,000 for a number of land allotments only to later discover they are, in fact, still owned by other people.
The defendants denied all charges against them and the hearings were adjourned until November 16.
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