9 Dubai expats cleared of running cricket betting website

Dubai - Police raided a villa located in Hor al Anz after being alerted by a real estate agent.

The Dubai Court of Appeals has cleared nine Pakistani men of the charge of running a website as a gambling network for cricket matches and making illegal money out of it.
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It was the second time the appellate court heard the case after it had been sent back by the Court of Cassation.
Earlier, a different panel of judges of the same court sentenced the nine men to one month in jail each to be followed by deportation.
The Court of Misdemeanors had acquitted them all of the charge.
Prosecutors accused that the nine defendants on May 11, 2016 and prior to that date, ran a website, through which they received calls from gamblers in India and Pakistan placing bets on potential winners in cricket matches.
According to the charge sheet, the nine accused collected the money with the help of their accomplices in both countries.
The police raided a villa located in Hor al Anz, Al Muraqqabat, after being alerted by a real estate agent. She was checking the villa after receiving some complaints from tenants. The agent claimed to police that she had found desks, many land lines, mobile phones, tablets and laptops, computers and operators, which raised her suspicion. Two police officers, who arrived and searched the villa, found Dh79,000, SR31,000 and other money in different currencies.
Upon their arrest, the defendants admitted to the police they had been using the internet to receive calls from cricket fans in Pakistan to place bets on: which team would be more likely to win the matches.
Defence lawyer Hani Hammouda of Kefah Al Zaabi Firm for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy argued: "The defendants' testimonies to the police were invalid as they were given in the absence of a legal translator. Besides, the agent's complaint was malicious and her plan was to evict my clients."
Hammouda contended that no items that could be deemed as evidence had been seized. "Many others shared the villa and the police officers, who made the arrests, could not tell for sure to whom the seized computers belonged exactly. One of the accused claimed Dh 79,000, which was seized, belonged to his workplace and was part of the sale revenues. He said he did not speak Arabic and signed a paper when they were caught without understanding its content."
"They said the villa comprised nine rooms while all of them stayed in one room. They complained of having signed papers they did not know their content. Some signed a police paper out of fear," the lawyer said.
"Moreover, both police officers could not recall the incident and adopted the same statements they had given to the public prosecution. The whole incident remains shrouded in doubts and all defendants maintained their denial all along.
The absence of a concrete and solid evidence to incriminate my clients makes it incumbent upon the court to clear them of any wrongdoing, as per Article 211 of the Criminal Procedure Law," Hammouda concluded.
The acquittal court ruling is final.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai