Abu Dhabi court sentences former AMF chairman
1987 - Former Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) chairman Jawad Hashem was sentenced to 79 years’ imprisonment and ordered to repay, along with his three top aides, around $80 million (Dh294.24 million) embezzled during their tenure in the AMF. Sentenced in absentia, Hashem and two other assistants were convicted of 47 charges. Hashem was also fined a total of Dh1.9 million. The second defendant, Jalal Oban Estifan, received a sentence of 79 years and fined Dh1.9 million. The third defendant, Mahdi Saleh Bahr Al Oloum, was sentenced to 75 years and fined Dh1.8 million. Fourth accused Fadhel Al Oun was convicted on eight counts and sentenced to 30 years and fined Dh270,000. The fifth accused Sameer Abdul Latif Rajab was sentenced to two years and six months in jail.
March 16
1792 - Sweden’s King Gustav III is shot by Count Anckarström at a masked ball at the Opera, he dies on March 29.
1922 - Britain recognises Kingdom of Egypt under Fouad I, with joint Anglo-Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan.
1926 - The first liquid-fuel rocket is successfully launched by Prof Robert Goddard in the US.
1935 - Germany repudiates disarmament clauses of Versailles Treaty that ended First World War.
1969 - Viasa DC-9 crashes at Maracaibo’s Grano de Oro airport, killing 155.
1976 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns.
1989 - Prince Charles and Princess Diana arrive in Dubai on a two-day visit.
1993 - A huge bomb explosion in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, brings down two apartment blocks and kills at least 45 people.
1994 - Russia agrees to phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.
1996 - Thousands of civilians flee the Chechen town of Samashky as Russian artillery shells rain down on their homes.
1999 - The entire European Commission resigns after allegations of corruption and inefficiency.
2000 - Nepalese Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai resigns.
2001 - The World Court awards Bahrain the largest island in a string of islands and gives Qatar the smaller ones, to settle their century-old border dispute.
2005 - Syrian military intelligence agents leave Beirut, ending an 18-year presence in Lebanon.
2007 - China’s legislators pass a law providing the most sweeping protection for private businesses and property.
2012 - Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batsman to score 100 international centuries.
