Jail term for man in Dubai police officer bribe

A man mistaken for a murder suspect wanted by authorities in India is convicted for bribing a police officer in Dubai for details about the investigation into his case.

DUBAI // A man mistaken for a murder suspect wanted by authorities in India was convicted yesterday of bribing a police officer in Dubai.

The man offered a luxury car in return for details of the investigation, according to court records.

JS, 42, who shares his name with a wanted international felon, was facing extradition to India on a murder warrant. But he presented documents from the Indian government to the court, showing that he was not the man named in the warrant.

While he was in prison, however, he gave an Interpol officer, identified as YS, 27, a Range Rover as a bribe for information on his case. Both were sentenced to three months in jail and fined Dh1,000 each by Judge El Saeed Bargouth, of the Criminal Court of First Instance.

JS will be deported after his sentence; he was free on bail during the case.

Records show that YS was originally being tracked in connection with an illicit relationship with a Russian woman. The internal investigation unit of Dubai police located the woman, OS, and questioned her. She told officers she had known him for about three months and that he used to pick her up in a white Range Rover with Ajman plates. She told officers that YS told her the car belonged to a friend, and that he intended to buy it.

After being arrested, YS admitted that JS had given him the car, which he used for three months.

JS told officers that a fellow detainee told him YS wanted a car, so he handed it over for purchase, but the officer never returned it. When investigators asked him why he never tried to get it back, JS said he was being investigated and was not in a position to make demands.

A Public Prosecution official testified that YS constantly called him about developments in JS's case. He told prosecutors that YS asked him to meet with prosecutors, and that YS, through his tone, tried to convey that the suspect was innocent.