Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

ABU DHABI: The Supreme Federal Court upheld an appeal fining a suspect Dhs10,000, after he was charged with giving a dud cheque of Dhs68 million to a bank. The court affirmed the suspect confessed to issuing the cheque, and that he was responsible for issuing it.

The Public Prosecution referred the appellant to the criminal court for issuing a cheque of Dhs68 million in bad faith, to a bank.

A court of first instance sentenced in absentia the suspect to 3 years in jail and a fine of Dhs100,000.

The suspect appealed the verdict, and the court sentenced him to 3 months in jail, but he appealed again and the court fined him Dhs10,000.

The suspect appealed the verdict, and the Public Prosecution filed a memorandum requesting that the appeal be rejected.

The suspect affirmed in his appeal he was not responsible for issuing the cheque, and that he exceeded the legal age for obtaining a loan as he was 78 years, adding that the cheque was forged. 

The court rejected the appeal, noting that the appellant said that he wrote the cheque in exchange for a commercial transaction, and when the cheque was presented to the bank he refused because there was no balance in it.

In a separate event, the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court looked into the case of two Asians charged with offering a bribe of Dhs5,000 to an official for awarding the tender of an auction to sell scrap iron to their company.

The two suspects denied the charge and the first said that he knew the official, who was actually a secret source. He added that he gave him Dhs5,000 as a loan for the treatment of his daughter.

During the session, the court presented a video, but without sound, of the incident, showing the suspects inside a trading centre in Abu Dhabi, along with the secret source, who recorded the incident.

The court returned the video clip to the electronic laboratory for examination, and adjourned the case to February 10 until the completion of the video sound examination.