UAE | Crime
Wafi heist witness 'gave contradictory statement'
Defence lawyers in last year's Wafi robbery told a court on Wednesday that uncorroborated evidence is being used to prosecute their two clients. Meanwhile the four main culprits remain at large.
- By Bassam Za'za'Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:33 May 15, 2008
Dubai: Defence lawyers in last year's Wafi robbery told a court on Wednesday that uncorroborated evidence is being used to prosecute their two clients. Meanwhile the four main culprits remain at large.
The Public Prosecution had charged 33-year-old Serbian suspect, N.M., with aiding and abetting an unidentified number of fugitives who stole jewellery worth Dh14.5 million from Graff Jewellery at Wafi. His 52-year-old compatriot, M.M., was charged with possession of some of the stolen items.
"My client is not linked to the crime or the four main suspects who are still absconding ... this was confirmed by the prosecution witness who testified before the court that she issued the visas to the fugitives and not N.M. My client stopped contacting the fugitives two weeks prior to the crime," N.M.'s defence lawyer Ali Abdullah Al Shamsi, of Al Shamsi Advocates and Legal Consultants, said before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.
Al Shamsi also said that his client was questioned at the Police and the Public Prosecution unlawfully due to the absence of a Serbian language translator.
Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir listened to the statement of 32-year-old Bangla-deshi tailor, M.Z., who was the last prosecution witness, before hearing the lawyers' defence. The tailor pointed at N.M. and claimed that he spoke to him when he came along with the fugitives to buy the abayas [which the suspects used to mask themselves during the heist].
Al Shamsi later argued that the tailor gave a contradicting statement. "During the Public Prosecution statement, he said a tall man with pierced ears spoke to him... and today he has contradicted his statement and said N.M. spoke to him," said Al Shamsi. Abdul Rahman Hussain, M.M.'s lawyer said, "Law enforcement officers failed to carry out serious investigations about M.M."
My client is not linked to the crime or the four main suspects who are still absconding."
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