Man jailed for smuggling fake Qatar banknotes

An Arab expat has been jailed for five years for smuggling counterfeit banknotes into Qatar and attempting to use them in stores.

According to the charge sheet, the Syrian man paid with two fake QR500 ($140) notes after buying items from a shopping mall on two different occasions in November 2007.

His two brothers and an Indian shopkeeper were also convicted for not informing the police and destroying evidence, reported Qatar daily newspaper Gulf Times.

After the shopkeeper detected the fraud, a brother of the main accused approached him to solve the matter in a “friendly way”, the court was told. A shop assistant testified saying that he confronted the main accused with the counterfeit bills when he came to his shop the third time and referred the matter to his boss, the Indian shopkeeper.

“He gave my boss two authentic notes and tore the fake ones in front of us. My boss agreed not to inform the police,” the witness said, according to the newspaper.

The lawyer of the Indian claimed that his client agreed “to solve the matter peacefully” after consulting with his managers.
However, presiding judge Mamon Hamour dismissed the argument saying that “obeying the boss” did not extend to criminal acts, and issued the shopkeeper with a suspended fine of $825.

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