Corporal jailed, suspended from service for taking bribe

dubai — A 30-year-old police corporal has been sentenced to two years in prison for taking Dh3,000 in bribe from a motorist.

The Court of First Instance ordered on Tuesday that the Emirati officer be suspended from his position for three years.

Prosecutors accused the defendant of soliciting Dh5,000 from the Saudi Arabian complainant after seizing his driving licence and car’s papers. The defendant allegedly stopped short of issuing the complainant a Dh10,000 fine to solicit the bribe, but he later settled for Dh3,000.

The incident happened in the early hours of January 19 on a street in Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR).

The Saudi told a police lieutenant that he was approached by the accused, who was then driving a police patrol car, for stopping his car in the middle of the road and obstructing traffic. The accused wanted to issue the complainant a ticket for that and told him that he would have to pay a fine of Dh10,000 and have his car impounded for 30 days unless he paid him Dh5,000. The accused later settled for Dh3,000.

“The complainant was at the Criminal Investigation Department when he got two phone calls from the accused. The latter wanted to meet him at Al Maktoum Airport area to take the money from him and get his documents back as agreed earlier,” the lieutenant said in the investigation.

The police instructed the complainant to change the meeting venue to the Dragon Mart area. They arrested the accused around 3pm the same day outside a gate of Dragon Mart after he collected the bribe amount.

The defendant claimed to the police that the complainant was drunk and causing disorder and noise at the time when he seized his car documents from him.

He said that he asked for the bribe money as he needed it to provide for his family and his father who depended on him for all his expenses.

The verdict can be appealed within 15 days.