Dubai policeman, immigration officer acquitted in bribery case

Dubai: A court has acquitted a policeman and an immigration officer in a Dh55,000 bribery case due to uncorroborated evidence.

The Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the 23-year-old Yemeni policeman of bribing the 32-year-old Emirati immigration officer with Dh55,000 to allow the policeman's wife, an Iraqi, to enter the country illegally after she was deported [following her serving a year's jail sentence for prostitution].

Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout, who pronounced the verdict, jailed the woman for three months followed by deportation.

Prosecutors accused 23-year-old M.S. and his wife, T.M., of paying off 32-year-old M.K. Both men pleaded not guilty.

According to the arraignment sheet, M.K. was charged with abusing his position as a first sergeant at the eye-scan section of the Department of Residency and Foreigner Affairs at Dubai International Airport by asking for Dh55,000 from M.S. and his wife T.M.

M.K. was also accused of misusing a government department stamp on T.M.'s travel documents.

T.M. was charged with entering the country illegally. She had failed to appear in court as she was deported on October 1.

Prosecution records cited M.K. admitting that he met the married couple in Syria and agreed to help get T.M. into the UAE illegally.

The primary judgment is subject to appeal within 15 days.

The wife had been sentenced to one year in jail followed by deportation, after a court in Sharjah convicted her of working in the sex industry.