The Dubai Criminal Court ruled to convict four Asian defendants, who offered 98 million dirhams in bribes to the executive director of the Ports Security, Customs and Free Zone Corporation in Dubai, to release 98 shipments of banned red sandalwood through Jebel Ali Port, and sentenced them to six months in prison and a fine of 50,000. Dirham.
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Sandalwood oil Red sandalwood is considered an endangered plant, and is banned according to the CITES treaty regulating international trade in endangered animal and plant species. This type of wood consists of an alcoholic substance called “santol”, which constitutes the basic substance of sandalwood oil, and is responsible for the fragrant smell it has. It is distilled to obtain sandalwood oil, which is thick, sticky, yellow in color, and is used in many products. Including the preparation of different types of soap, and its wood is used in the manufacture and assembly of furniture, and the furniture made from it is considered the most expensive in the world. |
According to the investigations of the working prosecution, the four defendants, two businessmen and a sales employee, aged between 33 and 46 years, offered the prominent customs official one million dirhams for each shipment that he would release through the port. The executive director stated in his statement to the Public Prosecution that one of the defendants called him while he was abroad with his family last August, and told him that a friend of his of the same nationality wanted to meet him to start a business partnership together, but he politely refused, so he was surprised that he had given his phone number to his friend who Communicate with him and come to meet him in the country where he is located.
He added that he did not pay much attention to the offer made by the second defendant, which is an investment in the field of security, since he owns a company in an Eastern European country specialized in supplying security guards, “but he came to meet me after my return to the Emirates last November, accompanied by the defendant.” First and third person.
He pointed out that “they asked to meet with me in a hotel last December, and the four defendants attended this time,” and he was surprised by them talking about containers containing shipments of prohibited red sandalwood, pointing out that they offered him a million dirhams for every container that was released and taken out of the area. The containers are in Jebel Ali Port and transported to one of the warehouses in the free zone, to be sold to other people in the country.
He explained that he directly reported the incident to the police, who asked him to go along with the accused, and learned that each container contained a shipment of red sandalwood worth three million dirhams, which they decided to distribute at a rate of one million dirhams to the customs official, and two million dirhams to be distributed equally among themselves.
The police, in accordance with established procedures, recorded many meetings that took place between the customs official and the four defendants, until they were arrested on December 12 of last year, after handing him 50,000 dirhams as a deposit for the deal. The prohibited containers, whose owners were not known, were also seized. The court decided to deport the defendants after serving their sentences in the central prison in Dubai.
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