E-Paper
Sign In
Ex-Minister Pleads not Guilty to Fraud Charges
DUBAI - Former minister of state Dr Khalifa Bakhit Al Falasi has pleaded not guilty to the charges of fraud and breach of trust.
- PUBLISHED: Wed 17 Sept 2008, 1:21 AM UPDATED: Thu 5 Sept 2024, 2:58 PM
The case came up for hearing in the Dubai Court of Misdemeanour on Monday.
The judge adjourned the trial until October 20 upon request from the defence lawyers.
Recommended For You
Dr Al Falasi, 51, stood trial along with his 26-year-old son Mohammed, a US national, and an Indian associate.
He was accompanied by his daughter, advocate Mariam and friends. “There is no case in the first place. It is a contrived and unjustified case,” an agency quoted the dismissed minister as saying.
Dr Al Falasi is accused of deceiving the plaintiff, a Lebanese, Maysoun Jamal, owner of Global Information Technology Company, into signing a cession bond of her shares by claiming he was a '51 per cent partner' in the company. He is also charged with breach of trust. As per the court records, he allegedly concealed the fact from the plaintiff that her late brother owned a property in Al Ghusais worth millions of dirhams. The three other defendants allegedly assisted him in the alleged fraud.
The complainant, Maysoun Jamal, is the sister of late businessman Hassan Jamal, who used to be a business partner of the former minister.
Sources close to the case say that it was in 1995 when the late Hassan Jamal established a business group in Dubai and took the former minister as a partner.
Maysoun Jamal alleged that after the death of her brother in 2005, the former minister made a settlement with them on the assets of the Global Information Technology Company, claiming he owned 51 per cent of the company's shares. The plaintiff later found out that he was, allegedly, just a sponsor, rather than a partner.
mary@khaleejtimes.com