Abu Dhabi court orders employees to pay Dh8.5m

Abu Dhabi: Three government employees have been sentenced to six months in jail and fined Dh8.5 million for forging official documents and accepting bribes.

The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of Appeals convicted the three employees of forgery and facilitating the seizure of Dh4.21 million.

It also convicted two clients of bribing the three employees to forge documents that would exempt them from paying the accumulated fines and fees totaling Dh4.216 million for violating the residency law in the country.

The court found that the clients bribed the three convicted employees with paying their telephone bills and offering them special telephone numbers in exchange for aiding them by forging documents and transactions that would cancel out their fines.

All five will serve six months in jail. The fourth and fifth convicts will be deported after serving their jail terms.

In 2006, the Court of Public Funds referred the five suspects to the court. The three employees were accused of abusing their position as public servants when they forged documents related to the two clients that would cancel their fines and fees.

Earlier, the Court of First Instance issued a ruling sentencing the five suspects to one year in jail.

Then the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation rejected the ruling and referred the case to the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of Appeals which reduced the prison term from one year to six months.