Dubai: A company manager has been summoned by a judge after he failed to hand over the passport of his ex-employee who is involved in a criminal case and needs the passport to get bail.

The manager has to appear before the pertinent judge and hand over the passport or explain why he did not give it to the Greek ex-employee.

In April, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the Greek employee for three years for embezzling Dh2 million by abusing the authority granted to him to access a special money transfer software. The defendant had pleaded innocent and refuted his accusations.

After the employee appealed the primary judgement, the Dubai Appeal Court allowed him to walk out on bail after keeping his passport in the court’s custody.

Despite having been granted a bail order, according to court records, the Greek defendant has not been able to walk out on bail for failing to submit his passport.

On Sunday, the appellant’s lawyer explained to the Appeal Court that his client’s former manager has refused to give them the passport to be able to submit it to the court and have his client get out on bail.

The lawyer produced before the Appeal Court an official subpoena that an implementation judge issued and which compels the manager to appear in front of him [implementation judge] to submit the passport or explain why the company has failed to implement the bail conditions and hand in the defendant’s travel document.

The lawyer argued before the appellate court that since his client’s former employer failed to give the defendant’s passport, he [lawyer] lodged a special plea before the implementation judge to enforce the bail decision.

“The implementation judge issued a subpoena compelling the manager to appear in front of him to hand over the passport. Besides, the Greek consulate has agreed to issue a travel document only to my client and not a new passport, which he could have submitted to the court to bail himself. Your Honour, my client has been in prison for a long period and since there is a bail decision, we ask the court to modify the bail’s conditions and allow him to submit another custodian’s passport and get bailed,” the lawyer told the presiding judge.

The appeal court refused to change the bail’s conditions, hence, the Greek defendant remains in prison until he surrenders his own passport.

The defendant worked as a computer programmer at the company that develops IT programs.

Records said he developed an online money exchange software through which he transferred the embezzled money to bogus accounts in 2015.

The appellant is seeking acquittal before the Appeal Court as he challenges the primary judgement, according to which he was fined Dh100,000 and ordered to pay Dh21,000 in temporary civil compensation to his former company.

The appellate hearing continues.