DUBAI // A boatbuilder locked in a two-year battle with a customer over a Dh4 million yacht was cleared yesterday of forging a document to support his case.
B?G, 41, from Iceland, claims that M?J, a 41-year-old Emirati, offered to sponsor his company in return for a specially made yacht.
The boatbuilder supplied the Dh4m vessel, but the Emirati reneged on his promise of sponsorship and refused to return the yacht.
The Icelander filed a lawsuit and in 2010, an Abu Dhabi court ordered the Emirati to pay the Dh4m.
But after the verdict the boatbuilder was charged at Dubai Criminal Court with forging an official document and using it as evidence.
He denied the charge when he appeared in court in August.
Judge Hamad Abdul Latif adjourned the case and ordered the release of the boatbuilder on bail, on condition that he surrender his passport and provide a financial guarantee of Dh50,000.
Yesterday, a new panel of judges acquitted him and dismissed a civil case filed by the Emirati.
[ salamir@thenational.ae ]
