Dubai: A paralegal has been accused of paying Dh500 in bribe to a police sergeant stationed at Dubai Courts to help him get confidential information about his clients.

The police sergeant was said to be heading to his desk at the Dubai Courts’ building when the Egyptian paralegal told the former that he wanted to discuss a private matter with him in March.

Once the sergeant stood with him beside the building, the paralegal offered to pay the sergeant money to help him fish out details about his [Egyptian] clients, according to records, without presenting a power of attorney [POA] that he represents those clients and as required by the Criminal Procedures Law.

The paralegal allegedly offered money to the sergeant to access the Public Prosecution’s electronic system and provide him with confidential details about his clients’ criminal statuses and whether they were wanted or banned from travelling.

Records said the sergeant informed his superior about what had happened and he was instructed to pretend to have agreed and have the Egyptian paralegal arrested in a sting operation.

The Egyptian paralegal was then apprehended in a sting operation after he paid the sergeant money in a washroom at the Dubai Courts building.

Prosecutors accused the suspect of bribing a law enforcement officer to make him abuse his job position and get access to confidential information about clients by breaching the Criminal Procedures Law.

The strongly refuted the charges when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

“I did not … that is not true,” he told presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi.

Advocates Nasser Hashem and Maasoumah Al Sayegh and two others volunteered to defend the suspect and asked presiding judge Al Shamsi to hear prosecution witnesses.

The sergeant claimed to prosecutors: “I know the suspect since he is a paralegal and constantly visits my desk to check on his clients or for different kinds of transactions. He offered to pay me money against providing him details pertaining to an Egyptian woman … my supervisors instructed me to pretend to have agreed to his offer to have him apprehended in a sting operation.”

An investigating police lieutenant testified to prosecutors: “Following his arrest in the sting operation, the suspect cried and begged us to forgive him. He cried as he said ‘I am at fault please do not ruin my life’.”

The trial continues.