The Dubai Court of Appeal has begun examining an appeal by a first instance court convicted of fraud, which sentenced him to three years in prison for over four million dirhams, checks worth more than 17 million dirhams and a blank check book from a citizen after he was intimidated. That he was a powerful figure, becoming a public figure.
The 34-year-old defendant was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison by the Misdemeanor Court, but the court rejected the opposition and upheld his detention. He appealed to the Court of Appeal, which set January 10 to consider the sentence.
According to the testimony of the witnesses before the Public Prosecution, the accused took full control of the victim, after being accused of being too powerful, to become a public figure, and to control his life and his family's movements. He even gave him bank cards belonging to his family until the victim finally discovered that he had signed Victim of systematic fraud.
The victim reported in the Public Prosecution's investigation that the defendant seized from him movable money and bonds, a blank check book, worth 12 million dirhams, in addition to three checks worth five million and 610 thousand dirhams. He also took out a credit card belonging to the victim, five credit cards belonging to his sisters and his mother, a withdrawal of the first card of one million dirhams, the second card two million and 698 thousand dirhams, the third card 420 thousand dirhams, and four 84 thousand dirhams, and the fifth the same amount.
The victim stated that he handed over the cards and checks to the accused after he was accused of being a public figure by communicating with him via a telephone number. The victim presented a copy of the letters to the prosecution, noting that he handed over the cards to the accused in 2008 and continued to use them until 2016.
In his testimony, the victim's brother confirmed that he knew the suspect in 2008 through his brother. He frequented the house until he became a friend of the family. He showed pictures of him with public figures and acted in a way that reflected great wealth. The victim and dictated to him the financial affairs of all members of the family, and then asked him to collect credit cards from his brothers and handed over to him, so that spending himself on the family.
He added that the defendant personally contacted him as a prominent person by text message service, and asked for money to run on commercial projects, gave him 350 thousand dirhams, and realized in the end that he was a victim of fraud.
Another witness, an Arab national, who works as a director at a tourism company, said that he was introduced to the defendant in 2008 and that the latter was obsessed with working for an important person and entered into a private business with him. He later told him that he ran tourism offices belonging to that person, He said that he had worked with him for a period until he failed to pay one million and 800 thousand dirhams. He asked him for it, but he was surprised that he threatened to travel abroad because of his relationship with important figures. He was afraid and stopped demanding his entitlements.
The witness added that he knew the victim through the accused, that he had observed how he had fulfilled all his requests literally, and that he had heard the latter once ask him to hand over a security check to another person, pointing out that "the defendant's control over the victim was absolute."
He said that the defendant asked him to use his car, but about two weeks later he received a call from a police station in Dubai that the suspect was arrested, adding that they asked him to come and pick up his car. When he received it he found two telephones. He opened them to discover text messages sent by the accused to the victim His family, as a public figure, also found programs used in message synthesis.
According to a complaint filed by attorney Ali Musabah, the victim's agent, the accused continued to communicate with the victim as a prominent figure and gave him orders to do certain things in his life, such as identifying friends, not leaving the house and traveling abroad. It evolved into a material life. Even to support his fraudulent means, he sent a banquet to his home as a gift from this character.