Dubai: A father was under extreme ‘humane pressure’ at the time he bribed an airport officer in a bid to dodge a travel ban so he could be by the side of his leukaemia-stricken son, his defence counsel argued in court on Sunday.

The Palestinian businessman was motivated strictly by ‘fatherly and humane’ reasons when he bribed the Emirati officer to dodge his travel ban and fly out to facilitate two bone marrow transplants for his nine-year-old leukaemia-stricken son, who died in March, according to lawyer Nasser Hashem.

“Two hours prior to his heartbreaking death, the child told his father ‘you came very late and you had promised to come earlier’. Thanks to God Almighty and thanks to the kindheartedness and exceptional compassion of Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Abdullah Al Ali, my client had the chance to say goodbye to his son, who had been dying painfully and slowly … he managed to catch up with him just very few hours before he passed away,” lawyer Hashem argued before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.

The Palestinian businessman admitted earlier that he paid Dh120,000 in bribes to the Emirati officer to help him avoid all security checks at Dubai International Airport so he could fly out twice, to Beirut and Amman, for the treatment of his son.

The Emirati pleaded not guilty.

Records said the Palestinian had not been able to fly out of the country because of a pending bounced cheque case against him but once he realised that his son needed two urgent successive operations (bone marrow transplants), he paid the officer to be able to fly out so that he would be able to provide stem cells to help with his son’s treatment.

“The suspect failed to fly out because of the travel ban that had been imposed on him due to the bounced cheque case; he had issued that cheque against a loan that he took to pay for his son’s medication. Informed by doctors that his stem cells were the only ones that matched those of his son, my client was under exceptional pressures that coerced him to behave the way he did in a last-ditch attempt to save his son … and despite all that he did, he lost his son. This is a very rare and unprecedented humane case of its kind. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced this year [2017] the year of giving and compassion; the defence is pleading to your hearts and conscience to treat my client with utmost compassion and acquit him of his wrongdoing. He is a father who was just trying to help his son, who was on death bed … and has already died,” lawyer Hashem contended before presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi.

Sympathy and compassion are the main pillars of the UAE as a country and its justice system, argued the lawyer.

“The critical situation of the boy’s medical state had prevented my client from flying his son to Dubai to facilitate the bone marrow transplant and, due to that medical state, the suspect did what he did. He had no criminal intention; he has been living in the UAE since 1992 and had never been involved in a traffic fine. He should not have been standing here in the dock, we ask the court to acquit him,” concluded lawyer Hashem.

According to records, the Palestinian paid the Emirati Dh60,000 twice to help him dodge security checks at the airport and fly in and out of the country two times between September and December 2016.

Law enforcement officers discovered what had happened and apprehended the Palestinian after he completed his second trip.

“I had no other option and all doors were shut in my face. I was obliged to do it to save my son,” the Palestinian suspect told the court.

A police lieutenant testified that the two suspects were apprehended in a sting operation.

Presiding judge Al Shamsi will hand out a ruling on September 24.