Dubai: Two employees of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation — a manager and a worker — have been cleared of forging around 20,900 electronic labour transactions and taking Dh4.2 million in bribes.
The employees, a Jordanian and an Indian, had denied accepting Dh200 in bribe per e-transaction to benefit a typing centre’s Indian manager and a private company’s worker, also Indian, during a period of five years.
The Dubai Cassation Court dismissed prosecutors’ appeal and confirmed the acquittal of the Jordanian and Indian ministry employees of involvement in the forgery of more than 20,000 e-transactions and taking Dh4.2m in bribes between 2009 and 2014. The Jordanian employee’s lawyer, Omar Al Awadhi, argued before presiding judge Mustafa Al Shennawi: “This case was based on groundless and fabricated evidence … prosecutors brought in evidence that were insufficient and uncorroborated to indict my client.”
In March, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the Jordanian and the three Indians to three years in jail each. According to the primary court ruling, the ministry employees were sacked and fined Dh4.2 million and ordered them to jointly repay the amount to the ministry.
The Indian manager and worker were fined Dh150,000 each.
A Lebanese employee at the ministry was cleared of abetment in the scam over lack of evidence.
According to the primary court, the employees accessed the ministry’s e-system illegally and provided the typing centre manager and the private company worker with logistical and technical support to carry out those transactions.
The ministry employees tampered with the details in the records and labour contracts between labourers and companies and their sponsors by linking them to the ministry’s e-system illegally and carrying out those transactions although they were not permitted to do so.
The five suspects pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
In July, the Appeal Court overturned the primary ruling and acquitted all suspects due to lack of evidence.
Prosecutors appealed the appellate court judgement before the Cassation Court and sought to have the acquittal overturned and the suspects punished.
“My client had nothing to do with all the processed transactions … and he did not take any bribe to process any electronic transaction. The typing centres did not require my client’s assistance to provide logistical and technical support especially between 2009 and 2012. Actually, during the period within which prosecutors have claimed that the purported crime had happened, typing centres used to obtain login accounts and passcodes from the customer agents and several companies used to be linked to one business owner … my client’s services and/or assistance were never required to provide those centres with support. Hence, the suspect had nothing to do with any of the disputed transactions,” argued Al Awadhi.
Other defence lawyers also argued before Dubai’s highest court that their clients did not deal in bribes or indulge in any form of forgery and asked for their acquittal due to lack of evidence. Presiding judge Al Shennawi upheld the four suspects’ acquittal that has become final.
The deportation order against the four men was also dismissed.
A section head of the ministry had claimed that the e-forgery was discovered after a number of clients complained about their electronic transactions.
“An internal investigation revealed that the ministry’s employees had established a number of bogus accounts for non-existent clients and provided the access details to those accounts to several typing centres … and those typing centres accessed the ministry’s e-system and carried out the illegitimate transactions,” he claimed
The suspects strongly rejected any wrongdoing and pleaded innocent.
