Worker jailed for offering bribe

Dubai: A worker has been jailed for offering Dh31,000 as a bribe to a policeman to let him go instead of taking him to the police station.

The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the 22-year-old Pakistani to three months in jail after he was found guilty of offering a bribe to a government employee (a policeman) in order not to do his job.

Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad said the accused, identified as J.B., will be deported after serving his punishment.

"The bribe money will be confiscated as well," said Presiding Judge Abdul Jawad when he pronounced yesterday's judgment in courtroom four.

When J.B. appeared in court earlier this month he denied the charges. He pleaded not guilty and contended: "I am innocent. I didn't offer any bribe to the policeman. I didn't do anything wrong."

Alcohol

An Emirati police sergeant testified that the incident happened when he spotted the suspect's car moving at a very low speed on Emirates Road.

"My colleague and I were patrolling near Al Warqa Bridge on Emirates Road. We spotted the suspect's car moving at a suspiciously slow speed. We warned the driver to increase his speed up to the required limit. Suddenly, the driver pulled over on the side of the road. We noticed a suspicious movement in the car. I walked towards the driver and asked him for the driving licence and car registration. He told me that he was driving slowly because one of his tyres was flat. When I checked the four tyres, I realised that he had lied," the sergeant claimed to the prosecutor who questioned him.

According to records, the sergeant claimed: "He [the driver] denied that he was driving under the influence of alcohol. Another passenger went out from the second door and he wasn't wearing slippers… he claimed that he had been consuming liquor. I took the driver and the other passenger in the police car to the station. J.B. stayed in the car which my colleague drove towards the station. My colleague [an Emirati policeman] told me that J.B. took out a blue bag [filled with money] and threw it between his legs and told him ‘please'."

The policeman claimed that J.B. took out the money bag from the dashboard and offered it to him to let him go without taking him to the police station.

The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.