‘Wanted’ slipped away with Dh5.8B from Dubai
dubai — The total financial obligations of the ‘wanted people’ in Dubai from January to November has reached a whopping 5.8 billion, with the majority of them part of dud cheques, scams and frauds.
According to Colonel Saeed Al Ayali, director of the wanted department of criminal investigation department of the Dubai Police, one of the important achievements was the arrest of an Asian and an Arab trader who issued dud cheques worth Dh354 million and Dh350 million, respectively.
He said that 202 international arrest warrants were issued against people wanted by the UAE and 32 of them were extradited from various countries. He also said that Asian countries top in the number of wanted individuals. “The international cooperation of the UAE has achieved a big boom in recent years, and helps the prosecutions through ongoing efforts to reduce crime.”
Col Al Ayali said that 223 wanted persons were arrested in the UAE in 11 months, as per the international warrant through Interpol’s global website. They are wanted for murder, fraud and other cases. “Recently, the Dubai Police arrested an Asian who was charged with several murders in his home country, after 20 years of fugitive life.”
He pointed out that an amount of Dh61million was handed over to the authorities concerned from other countries. “Around 62 wanted people were extradited from the UAE.”
Col Al Ayali said that the arrest of wanted people in the UAE this year increased by 17.3 per cent, compared to last year’s 12 per cent. He attributed the increase of arrests to the intensive campaigns. “Teams are formed at each police station to arrest the wanted people and the situation is reviewed periodically with updated data. Most of the arrests this year occurred in July, with 1,647 wanted people’s arrest, followed by 1,532 in October.”
One-day court success
Col Al Ayali also said that 459 case procedures were completed by the one-day court using video-conference, shortening the processing time from three days to 10 minutes, especially in financial and Shariah cases. This was done as per the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. After the success of the experiment period, the system was applied to immigration and residency issues which reduced the waiting time by 60 per cent.
He said the international law grants the right for authorities to put up the names of those who are in the list of internationally wanted people, if the amount is over $10,000 or more. An arrest warrant will be issued against the person and he is arrested according to agreements signed between the countries.
amira@khaleejtimes.com