UAE | Crime
Jail term for issuing bad cheque
Businessman is also undergoing trial for a second offence.
- By Bassam Za'za' Senior Reporter
- Published: 23:16 June 29, 2009
Dubai: An Egyptian businessman has been jailed for three years for issuing a $6.18 million (about Dh22.7 million) cheque which bounced in Dubai, although he claimed that he signed it in Cairo.
The Dubai Court of Misdemeanour found the renowned Egyptian businessman, N.B., guilty of signing a bad cheque. Meanwhile, he still undergoes a second trial for signing another bounced cheque for $1.83 million.
Presiding Judge Omar Ahmad Abdul Baki, who pronounced Monday's judgment, also referred the suspect to the Dubai Civil Court where he faces a civil lawsuit.
Advocate Eisa Bin Haidar, of Bin Haidar Group of Advocates, who represents the claimant, W.I., in civil right, lodged a civil lawsuit against the accused claiming Dh20,000 in temporary compensation against his clients' financial and emotional damages.
"I am innocent. I didn't sign the cheque in Dubai, as alleged by the claimant," said the well-known businessman when he appeared in court.
"We had a business deal and I issued him the cheque in Cairo in my company. The amount has been settled in Egypt," N.B. defended in court.
Bin Haidar argued before the court that the defendant presented a defence witness who gave a false statement that N.B. issued the cheques in Cairo.
"The cheques were issued in Dubai& their amount hasn't been settled. The crime fell within the Court of Misdemeanour' jurisdiction and not the Cairo Criminal Court, as claimed by the accused," defended Bin Haidar.
N.B. pleaded not guilty and refuted issuing two bounced cheques for $6.18m and $1.83m, respectively, and alleged that he issued them in Cairo.
The court yesterday sentenced him in the first case and he awaits the court to reconvene next month in the second case.
Yesterday's verdict is still subject to appeal within 15 days.
"The Public Prosecution dismissed one of the cases against N.B. who settled the amount of a $1 million bounced cheque& but he was referred in two bounced cheque cases to the Misdemeanour Court," Dubai's Attorney General Essam Eisa Al Humaidan previously said.
Khalifa Bin Deemas, First Attorney General and Head of the Attorney General's Technical Office, said in a media statement earlier that the judicial authorities in Cairo requested the extradition of N.B. for fraud in Egypt.
Sources confirmed that there are two extradition requests.
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