UAE | Crime
Wrongly accused jobseeker loses everything
Innocent man ends up broke and homeless after being arrested at airport on false charge of issuing a dud cheque.
- By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter
- Published: 22:37 June 20, 2009
Dubai: A man ended up homeless and penniless, only to receive an apology from the authorities for accusing him of a crime he did not commit.
Egyptian Fatah Allah Asayed Eisa, 32, said he was arrested and detained, and that his passport was seized by Dubai the public prosecution for ten months for something he didn't do.
"My life is ruined for no crime of my own. I was arrested and detained. I lived [for] 10 months on the roads. I had to sell my house back home as I was jobless and homeless after the public prosecution held my passport for almost a year," Eisa told Gulf News.
He said all that he got at the end of his ordeal was an apology from the public prosecution's office for mistaking him for another person.
Eisa, who came here on a visit visa, was arrested at Sharjah Airport under a warrant for his arrest for issuing a dud cheque in order to repay a bank loan taken to purchase a Porsche. There was also a trade company licence in his name.
He said he first came to the UAE in 2007 on an employment visa to work for a restaurant in Dubai.
"I worked for that restaurant in Dubai for six months, [then] I decided to go back to my country," he said.
Eisa said he cancelled his visa in September 2007 and returned on a visit visa on February 4 last year.
"I was coming through Sharjah airport where I was arrested and detained for one day. I was then taken to the Criminal and Investigation Department.
"I asked them ... why I'd been arrested, but they said, 'you know what you have done'."
Eisa was then sent to Naif police station in Dubai where he was interrogated for a few days before the case was referred to the public prosecution.
"I was accused of issuing a dud cheque [to pay for] a Porsche which I've never seen in my life. I was told all the cases against me were filed by a bank here. I have never been to a bank in my life.
"I came here to look for a job. I came on a visit visa which expired and I became illegal here. I have no money to support myself. I had to sell my parents' home to pay for a lawyer.
"... I was sent to the Roads and Transport Authority to find out if I have a car registered in my name, but I have no car or driving licence. I was sent to the forensic laboratory too, and to the CID."
He said the public prosecution was investigating the bank's accusations against him for 10 months.
"I came ... to find a good job to support my family, but I found myself stuck here jobless, homeless and fighting for a case I have nothing to do with. I spent the year defending myself for something I did not do," he said.
Eisa said after ten months of waiting he received an apology from the public prosecutor's office for being wrongly accused.
The Dubai public prosecution told Gulf News the mix-up was due to there being two residence visas, a trade licence, Porsche and a bank loan in his name.
"We came to know in the end that someone had used a copy of his passport to do all that," the prosecution said.
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