Dubai: A Sharjah policeman has been accused of taking Dh3,000 in bribe to release a tailor, whom he had apprehended for staying in the country illegally.
The 52-year-old Indian tailor, B.S., was said to have been apprehended somewhere between Sharjah and Dubai when his son, M.S., received a call from the policeman, Y.A., [who worked for Sharjah police] and requested a bribe to release his father in August.
Prosecutors charged Y.A. of abusing his position as a policeman, accepting bribe and allowing a wanted suspect [B.S.] to evade justice.
Meanwhile, B.S., M.S. and their countryman, G.S., were charged with aiding and abetting Y.A.
“That did not happen,” said Y.A. as he entered a not guilty plea before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday.
According to the charges, prosecutors said Y.A. requested Dh3,000 in bribe and allowed B.S. to walk away despite having been commissioned [by Sharjah police] to hand him over to Dubai authorities. The three remaining suspect and a fourth unidentified suspect were charged with aiding and abetting the policeman in taking the bribe and allowing the tailor to escape justice.
M.S. and G.S. failed to attend Tuesday’s hearing, as they remain at large.
B.S. pleaded guilty before presiding judge Mohammad Jamal but contended: “I did not pay the money … it was the other unidentified suspect.”
Meanwhile, Y.A.’s lawyer Saeed Al Gailani argued before the court that his client did not abuse his duties as a policeman and allow B.S. walk away from justice.
“What really happened is not what prosecutors have claimed to have had happened. My client worked at Sharjah police and used to cooperate with an informant named Haris, who used to assist my client in apprehending illegal or wanted suspects. He did that in good intention … when Haris stopped B.S. in Dubai and handed him over to my client, the latter and did not check the place of arrest. So when he handed him over to Sharjah police, they refused to take him in due to jurisdictional purposes … he was not also tasked to hand him over to the Dubai authorities. On the contrary, he was accused of forging the arrest report [that B.S. had been detained in Sharjah] and tried before the Sharjah Court that sentenced him to 7 months. He already served his imprisonment,” argued Al Gailani.
The lawyer further contended that when his client accompanied B.S. to the Dubai immigration to hand him over, they refused to take him in.
“The immigration officers refused to accept B.S. because he did not have a return ticket and his passport. Confused with the situation he faced after the authorities in Sharjah and Dubai had refused to take B.S. into custody, Y.A. allowed him to walk. He did not know what else to do. He did not have any criminal intention. Besides, he did not abuse his authority and allow B.S. to walk away since it was not his duty to take him from Sharjah police to Dubai immigration. He was not even commissioned to do that,” defended Al Gailani, who asked the court to acquit his client.
Meanwhile B.S. and his son M.S. were quoted as admitting to prosecutors that they paid Dh3,000 in bribe to Y.A.
The son [who remains at large] was also quoted as telling prosecutors that he advised his father to inform the police that Y.A. had requested money to allow him [B.S.] to walk away.
A ruling will be heard on August 14.
