9 men cleared of running a cricket match betting portal
dubai — The Court of Misdemeanors recently cleared nine Pakistani men of the charge of running a website as a gambling network for cricket matches and making illegal money.
Prosecutors accused the nine defendants on May 11, 2016. Prior to that date, they ran a website through which they received calls from gamblers in India and Pakistan, placing bets on potential cricket match winners.
According to the charge sheet, the nine accused collected the money with the help of their accomplices in both countries. The police raided a villa in Hor Al Anz, Al Muraqqabat, after being alerted by a real estate agent. She was checking the villa after receiving some complaints from tenants. She told the police she had found desks, many landline and mobile phones, tablets and laptops, computers and operators, which raised her suspicions.
Two police officers who later searched the villa found Dh 79,000, 31,000 Saudi Riyals and other money in different currencies.
The defendants were then taken to the police station. Upon their arrest, they reportedly admitted to the police they would use the Internet to receive calls from cricket fans in Pakistan, taking bets on which team would be more likely to win the matches.
Defence lawyer Hani Hammouda of Kefah Al Zaabi Office for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy said in his defence arguments : “The defendants’ testimonies to the police were invalid as they were given in the absence of a legal translator. Besides, the agent’s complaint was malicious and her plan was to evict my clients.”
Hammouda argued that none of the seized items could be deemed as evidence. “Many others shared the villa and the police could not tell for sure whom the computers belonged to exactly. One of the accused claimed the Dh79,000, which was seized, belonged to the company he worked for and was part of sales revenue. He said he did not speak Arabic and signed a paper when they were arrested, without understanding its content.
“They said the villa comprised of nine rooms while all of them stayed in one room. They all complained of having signed papers without knowing their content. Some signed a police paper out of fear,” the lawyer said.
Hammouda concluded that in addition, both police officers could not recall the incident and adopted the same statements they had given to the public prosecution. “The whole incident remains shrouded in doubts, as all defendants maintained their denial in investigation and during the trial. The absence of concrete and solid evidence to incriminate my clients makes it incumbent upon the court to clear them of any wrongdoing as per article 211 of the criminal procedure law.”
The court subsequently acquitted the defendants.
The public prosecution has appealed the court ruling.
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