Jailed father given bail to be with dying son

Man arrested in bribery case spent three days with leukaemia-stricken boy who died on Sunday

Aman accused of bribing an official was on Thursday granted bail on humanitarian grounds to spend time with his leukaemia-stricken son. The boy died on Sunday.

Dubai prosecutors granted bail to the Palestinian father to visit his son who was on his deathbed in a hospital.

Earlier this month, the father, who was waiting to be produced before the Dubai Court of First Instance facing Dh120,000 bribery accusations, pleaded with the judicial authorities to grant him bail on humanitarian grounds to be able to be with Samir, his nineyear-old son.

“We cannot but thank the Dubai Public Prosecution for their understanding and being humane and allowing the father to spend some time with Samir. It was God’s will that Samir passed away on Sunday, but thank God his father was beside him.

Gratitude

“Since he was granted bail on Thursday, he spent every minute with his son. May Samir rest in peace and we are grateful and thankful to the prosecutors, who were very compassionate and allowed the father to see his son before his demise,” the father’s lawyer Nasser Hashem told Gulf News yesterday. When contacted by

a chief prosecutor confirmed that the father was granted bail on humanitarian grounds.

“Besides playing the law enforcement role, we also take a compassionate view of such exceptional and sorrowful cases … after all, we are all humans,” said the chief prosecutor.

The father, who is a businessman, could not leave the country earlier due to a bounced cheque complaint against him.

Thereafter, he allegedly bribed a government official, who helped him fly out of and back into Dubai in December.

Police arrested the businessman and the government official and referred them to Dubai prosecutors who slapped bribery charges on both.

A court hearing is yet to be scheduled, said Hashem.