Two police officers who were caught red-handed as they sought bribes from someone they thought was trying to avoid arrest for violating residency laws will have to see out their jail terms.
The person they were asking for money to let them walk free turned out to be an undercover informant and Dubai Criminal Court sentenced the officers to a year in jail each and a fine of Dh5,000 for seeking and accepting bribes. The appealed but lost as the sentence was upheld on Thursday.
Police were tipped off about the officers for asking for bribes of between Dh500 and Dh1,000 from residency law violators, so a Bangladeshi police source was sent undercover to approach the defendants.
"We sent him to the same place where the defendants were and told him to act suspiciously so that the pair would approach him," testified a police lieutenant, 26.
He added that, on December 27 last year in Al Muraqqabat, the defendants approached the police source and asked him about his papers. Acting on directions from police, the source told the defendants that he was overstaying his visa.
"They took me into the patrol car and drove for a while then said if I paid them Dh500 they would let me go. I paid them but they didn't know it was police money I gave them, then they told me to leave but I signalled police and they arrested both men," said the Bangladeshi.
Police confronted the pair with a recording as the source was wearing a wire when he met them but both men denied they asked for a bribe, saying that the man insisted on paying them money and, when he tried to hand it to them, they pushed his hand away and threatened to take him into custody.
The defendants, an Emirati, 27, and a 39-year-old Iranian, denied the charge in court but they were both convicted. The Iranian will be deported after serving his term.
