Dubai: A salesperson has been accused of forging papers of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment and a customs manifest to import two dogs from Brazil, heard a court on Tuesday.

A veterinary doctor at the Dubai International Airport was said to have kept the two dogs that were imported from Brazil in the special quarantine section in August.

Two hours later, when the doctor went to examine the dogs, the breed of which was not mentioned in records, he discovered that they had been released from the quarantine section and handed over to the importer.

When the doctor went to check with the airport’s customs section, he discovered that the papers that were handed over to the desk to release the dogs were forged.

The doctor discovered that the stamps and signatures on the papers issued from the ministry and the customs department were forged.

Police were notified instantly about the matter and preliminary investigation revealed that a 26-year-old Syrian salesperson had submitted the papers and took the dogs out of the airport.

Prosecutors charged the suspect with forging official papers and using them.

The 26-year-old suspect pleaded not guilty when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday.

“I didn’t forge any papers,” he told presiding judge Mohammad Jamal in courtroom three.

The veterinary doctor testified to prosecutors that he is stationed at the airport where his duty requires him to check on the health conditions of imported animals.

“I kept the two dogs in the quarantine section to examine them and left. When I returned around two hours later, I discovered that the dogs had been released. I communicated with the customs office at the airport to check the papers that had been submitted to release the dogs … the ministry and custom’s manifest turned out to be forged,” he claimed to prosecutors.

The 26-year-old suspect was quoted as admitting to prosecutors and police interrogators that he forged the ministry’s stamp and manifest and used the forged papers to take the dogs out of the airport without a medical check-up.

Presiding judge Jamal adjourned the case until the suspect hires a lawyer to defend him on December 31.