Dubai: A woman health official, her uncle and six others will be jailed after a court convicted them on Monday of accepting bribes to issue forged health certificates to individuals with infectious diseases.
The Dubai Court of First Instance jailed N.M., the 25-year-old Emirati woman, who worked for the Dubai Health Authority, for five years and fined her Dh20,000 for accepting the bribes from her 42-year-old Indian uncle, R.A.
She was ordered to repay the Dh20,000 that she took as a bribe.
Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad jailed R.A. for three years for bribing his niece (N.M.) and making her abuse her position and issue forged health certificates.
Prosecutors said R.A., who had a typing centre, used to hand over medical fitness applications of individuals with infectious diseases (such as hepatitis or Aids) to his niece during her evening shift to get the certificates stamped with ‘free from infectious disease'.
Two of the Authority's clerks, a 28-year-old Iranian, I.M., and a 30-year-old Indian, A.S., were each jailed for five years, fined Dh15,000 and ordered to pay back the bribes.
They were found guilty of accepting Dh45,000 in bribes from four Pakistani workers to process forged health certificates and producing them to the Department of Residency and Foreigners' Affairs in Dubai.
The workers, S.K., S.Q., K.R. and N.B., were jailed for three years each. All the defendants [except N.M.] will be deported.
The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
