DUBAI: Two men offered Dubai Customs inspectors a Dh40,000 bribe to free up a shipment of musical instruments that had been confiscated on arrival, a court has heard. Prosecutors said that on May 17 last year the Indian manager, 45, and his business partner, 46, offered the bribe and asked inspectors to stamp the shipment papers at Jebel Ali Port. They also asked the inspectors to write a note saying the two vehicles containing the instruments had passed inspection when they had not. An Emirati inspector, 27, said he asked the two for the shipment documents. “They said it was with the company’s representative, and shortly after one of them approached me and my colleague and presented documents that had a list of items different to those in the vehicles,” said the inspector.
At that point he said the two spoke between themselves, then one of them offered the inspectors the bribe. “I informed my supervisor at once. He asked me to play along and he called police,” said the inspector, who was told by police to arrange a meeting the next day to arrest the defendants. “I met him at 2pm the next day and he was arrested when he handed me the money,” said the inspector. Another inspector gave the same testimony.
The manager told prosecutors that the inspector had asked for the money and threatened to frame him if he did not pay. “It was then when I told him, ‘Let me ask the company’s manager’, who, when I told him about the incident, refused to pay,” he said. “But after the inspectors’ persistence, my manager agreed.” At Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday morning, the two denied a charge of bribery. The next hearing is scheduled for March 13.
