Two former Nakheel employees jailed for taking bribes

Two former Nakheel employees were sentenced to three years in prison on Sunday for their involvement in a AED5.14m ($1.4m) bribe on a property deal in Dubai.

Lawyers for the two, who are the second to be tried by the Dubai courts in a series of similar corruption cases, have said they plan to appeal against the verdict, according to UAE daily Gulf News.

"Definitely, I will appeal the verdict today [Monday]," said one of the pairs' advocates Hamdi Al Sheewi.

The defendants, a 32 year-old Emirati general sales manager and a 28 year-old Egyptian sales executive denied the Public Prosecution’s charge that they had asked for AED5.14m as a bribe from a company to finalise the process of selling a certain property.

However, after hearing the evidence Judge Fahmi Mounir, who was presiding over the case at the Dubai Court of First Instance, jailed the two for three years each and ordered them to pay a joint fine of AED3.081m.

On Thursday, the same court sentenced an Emirati sales manager at Dubai Industrial City to three years in jail and fined him AED17m ($4.63m) – the same amount he obtained as kickbacks on property deals.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM