ABU DHABI: The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court looked into a case in which a customs manager at a port was charged with receiving a bribe of Dhs42,000 and forging bills. The court adjourned the case for defence to June 13.
Details of the case date back to the time when authorities received information alerting that a customs manager at a port took bribes from a shipping company. Authorities trapped the suspect after taking permission from the prosecution, and he was arrested red handed taking Dhs42,000 from the company’s representative.
The prosecution charged him with asking for a bribe for awarding permits for trading ships to enter the port. He was also charged with forging bills of the financial charges. The prosecution demanded the maximum penalty against the suspect.
A witness who worked as the company’s representative said that the ships of the company were allowed to enter the harbour and inspected for Dhs3,000. The amount, according to the witness was collected electronically from the customs account of the company.
He noted that the ships anchored outside the port were not inspected and so no fees were imposed but the suspect imposed inspection fees on them. The witness added that the manager of the company refused to pay these fees two weeks before the incident and the suspect told him that he would not help them in case they didn’t pay.
The company, according to the witness was forced to pay the amounts requested by the suspect, stressing that he had paid Dhs42,000 to the suspect for previous transactions.
The suspect denied the charges, explaining that allowing or not allowing ships’ inspection was not his responsibility. He added that the amounts seized with him were rental value, because the witness asked him to rent a flat owned by him and paid Dhs60,000, after deduction of three months rent.
