Two expats on trial for bribing UAE ministry employee

Dubai - A case was registered at Al Qusais police station.

Two expats went on trial at the Dubai Court of First Instance for allegedly offering Dh15,000 worth of a bribe to an employee at the UAE Ministry of Education.
Court documents show that over the period from November 13 to 19 last year, the two Egyptians, including a manager and an employee, both aged 40, approached the supervisor of the customers happiness centre at the ministry, offering him Dh15,000 to prod him not to report a forgery committed by the second accused (the fake degree holder) to the legal affairs department at the ministry and the Dubai Municipality.
The second defendant is accused of forging, together with a runaway accomplice, a copy of a certificate equivalent to degree, which he falsely claimed was issued from the UAE Ministry of Education. He made the fake degree out of a forged Egyptian diploma (which he forged and attributed to a university in Egypt). He then e-mailed the forged certificate equivalent to degree to Dubai Municipality when applying for a job as an agricultural engineer at a firm and to get the approval of the civic body.
The fake diploma holder has been detained.
Both have been accused of offering a bribe to a public employee for an unlawful favour, forgery of official documents and use of forged documents.
A case was registered at Al Qusais police station.
The Emirati ministry employee, who reported the incident, said that he was on the job on November 13 last year, at the ministry in Al Qusais when a municipality staff walked into his office. "He wanted me to check a certificate (document) which was said to be issued from the ministry, in the name of the second accused."
The witness told the prosecutor that he could not track the document in the ministry's e-system, which meant it was not authentic but fake.
To eliminate any doubts regarding the documents, the witness called the second accused. "The latter said he would come in person to the ministry with the original copies."
However, according to the same witness, another man (the first defendant) visited the ministry the next day, with a proposal to settle the dilemma. "He said he came on behalf of the other accused. He asked me for help in not escalating the matter further and not reporting it to the legal affairs department at the ministry or to the municipality," the witness told the prosecutor.
The witness could tell from WhatsApp conversations' copies he received from the defendant that the second accused conspired with a third person to fake the two certificates (falsely attributed to an Egyptian university and its equivalent here).
The same witness recorded his conversation later with the first defendant during which the latter offered him Dh15,000 as a bribe to cover up the forgery incident.
The defendant was arrested later by the CID officers right after he handed an envelope containing the money to the ministry employee.
The trial will continue on February 12.
mary@khaleejtimes.com