Dubai: A father, who bribed an airport officer to dodge a travel ban to meet his leukaemia-stricken son and facilitate his treatment, won a reduced punishment on humane grounds on Sunday.
The Palestinian father was under an unusual pressure when he paid Dh120,000 in bribe to an Emirati airport officer to dodge a travel ban twice for treatment of his leukaemia-stricken son, lawyer Nasser Hashem argued before the Dubai Court of First Instance last week.
The Palestinian businessman acted upon ‘fatherly and humane’ grounds when he bribed the officer to dodge his travel ban and fly out to facilitate two bone marrow transplants for his nine-year-old son, the lawyer said. The businessman’s son died in March.
Citing humane and leniency grounds, presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi handed the Palestinian defendant a three-month jail term.
The convicted businessman confessed in court that he paid Dh120,000 in bribes to the officer to help him avoid all security checks at Dubai International Airport so he could fly to Beirut and Amman, for the treatment of his son.
The Palestinian had not been able to fly out of the country with a pending bounce cheque case against him but, once he realised that his son needed two urgent operations (bone marrow transplants), he bribed the officer to be able to fly out to provide stem cells to help with his son’s treatment, according to records.
The Emirati officer pleaded not guilty and denied the charges of bribery and having abetting the Palestinian dodge the travel ban.
According to Sunday’s ruling, presiding judge Al Shamsi fined the Emirati defendant Dh120,000 and jailed him for a year.
“Two hours before his heartbreaking death, the child told his father ‘you came very late. You had promised to come earlier’. Thanks to God Almighty and thanks to the kindheartedness and exceptional compassion of Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Abdullah Al Ali, my client had the chance to say goodbye to his son, who had been dying painfully and slowly … he caught up with him just few hours before he died,” lawyer Hashem argued in court.
The Palestinian had issued the cheque against a loan that he took to pay for his son’s medication, said the lawyer.
“Informed by doctors that his stem cells were the only ones that matched those of his son, my client was under immense pressure to travel abroad to save his son’s life. This is a very scarce and humane case of its kind. The defence is pleading to your hearts and conscience to treat my client with utmost compassion and acquit him of his wrongdoing. He is a father who was just trying to help his son, who was on death bed … and later died,” the lawyer contended before the presiding judge.
According to records, the Palestinian businessman paid the Emirati officer Dh60,000 each on two occasions to help him dodge security checks at the airport between September and December 2016.
Law enforcement officers apprehended the Palestinian businessman after he returned from his second trip.
Sunday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
