Bank urges court to set aside businessman's acquittal

Dubai: Lawyers of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) have requested Dubai's highest court to overturn a businessman's acquittal and list him along with six other defendants convicted of defrauding DIB of Dh1.8 billion.

In an unexpected twist, DIB's lawyer Hassan Arab of Al Tamimi and Co urged the Dubai Cassation Court yesterday to cancel the acquittal of 59-year-old British businessman, A.F., and put him on the list of six defendants.

In October, the Dubai Appeal Court upheld a ten-year imprisonment of four defendants, two British businessmen and two Pakistani former executives of DIB.

The convicts were ordered to repay Dh1.8 billion to DIB. The appellate court upheld the judgement against two defendants — an American, Z.U., and a Turk, A.I., 37, — both of whom are still at large.

The six convicts [except A.F.] were found guilty of defrauding, swindling and embezzling DIB of Dh1.8 billion. A.F.'s acquittal was upheld by the appellate judgement.

Verbal defence

The Cassation Court's Presiding Judge Mohammad Nabeel Riyadh yesterday said in courtroom 22 that the verdict will be heard on December 26.

Yet DIB's advocate Arab stood up and asked for the court's permission to present a verbal defence.

"DIB are appealing the appellate decision to acquit A.F. Sir, there is no way on earth that A.F. was not aware that the money which was transferred to his account was embezzled from DIB. That would have been impossible.

"We ask the court to cancel the appellate judgment [concerning A.F.'s innocence] and enlist him as a defendant.

"We object to what was mentioned in the appellate judgment that he didn't know that the money was extracted from a huge fraud and swindling case.

"The financial reports and prosecution witnesses, to say the least, confirm that A.F. was aware of the embezzlement and swindling. He also indulged in the swindling, defraud and embezzlement crime through his project," argued the advocate.

The court sentenced DIB's former financing department manager, U.H., 39, his deputy, R.U., 50, and the businessmen, C.M., 49, and R.L. 55, to ten years in jail and fined them Dh1.8 billion, the amount they are accused of embezzling from DIB.

Bribe charge

The fugitives [Z.U. and A.I.] were also given the same sentence. During yesterday's hearing, advocate Arab argued before Presiding Judge Riyadh: "We insist that A.F. was aware of this crime… what DIB was subject to affected the national economy. Today we are providing the court with evidence that A.F. participated in this crime by collecting $1 million [Dh3.67 million] in bribe and he also granted another defendant a piece of land in Plantation project as a bribe."