Dubai: Former state minister Khalifa Bakhit Al Falasi and two managers were found guilty of breaching a Lebanese businesswoman's trust by Dubai's highest court on Monday.
The Dubai Cassation Court on Monday convicted Al Falasi, an Indian finance manager, B.M. Raman, and American general manager, Samir Helmi, of breaching the trust of the businesswoman, Maysoun Jamal, in dealings pertaining to her late brother's stake in an IT company.
"The court has sentenced the suspects to one year in jail, but the imprisonment will be suspended for three years starting today… Raman and Helmi will be deported. The jury has also referred the civil lawsuit [lodged by Maysoun's lawyers] to Dubai Civil Court," said Presiding Judge Mohammad Nabeel Riyad when he pronounced yesterday's irrevocable judgment in courtroom 22.
If an accused given a suspended term repeats the crime during such period that the sentence is suspended he will have to serve the initial term as well as a fresh term.
The Dubai Civil Court will soon look into the civil lawsuit lodged by the claimant in civil right, advocate Essam Al Tamimi, who is representing Maysoun.
Defence argument
During the last hearing, Al Falasi had argued that his principles and religion oblige him not to breach anybody's rights.
"I do not breach any person's right or trust… breaching anybody's trust is against my ethics, conscience and religion [Islam]. I did my utmost best and exerted all possible means to resolve the dispute amicably," the 51-year-old accused had told Judge Riyad.
Helmi and Raman had also denied breaching the trust of the 37-year-old businesswoman and coercing her to waive her stake in an information technology firm.
Al Falasi's lawyer Samir Jaafar, defending his client in courtroom 22, said: "There was no act of coercion. She was not coerced or pressured to waive her stake in the IT firm… she did that willingly and at free will. Besides she gave an inconsistent statement that she was coerced and threatened by my client."
Addressing the judges' panel, Jaafar said: "How could there have been coercion since she sent a bouquet of flowers and a congratulatory note when he was appointed a minister!"
"All kinds of mutual dealings and transactions between the two parties [including the business dissolution agreement] were reached amicably. We ask the court to pronounce our client's innocence," the lawyer added.
Advocate Abdul Moniem Bin Suwaidan, who defended Raman and Helmi, argued that Maysoun's actions confirmed that she had acted freely and was not bullied or coerced into signing the reconciliation and waiving her stake and that of her late brother.
"Acting upon what she claimed to be an empowerment from her late brother, when she first came to the UAE in 2005, she dismissed and hired employees in the IT company… she took many administrative decisions. She did all that at free will and she was not coerced. My clients did not commit any crime," contended Bin Suwaidan.
Coercion allegation
When asked by Presiding Judge Riyad if she had anything to tell the court, Maysoun said: "I was coerced and subjected to breach of trust… the accused colluded against me and breached my rights and my brother's after his death."
Advocate Hassan Arab argued on Maysoun's behalf: "Our client was subject to verbal and written threat. She was coerced and pressured to sign the waiver. The defendants had a prior intention to breach her trust."
