Asian in the dock over misuse of identity card

Ehab Atta, Staff Reporter

An unemployed Asian, 40, implicated two of his friends in the crime of using an authentic official document belonging to another person. He presented the ID card of his friend, the third defendant, to the police claiming that it belonged to him.

The details of the case, which was heard by the Dubai Criminal Court on Wednesday, dated back to June 18 when the first defendant went with his friend, the third defendant, to an airport to receive their friend, the second defendant. Unfortunately, the first defendant was an illegal immigrant who entered the country without any official documents.

While waiting, the first defendant was suspected by a policeman at the airport, who approached him and asked for his identification papers. The first defendant told the policeman that his ID card was not with him but he would call his friend to bring it for him. The first defendant called the second defendant, who had already arrived at the airport, and told him that he was in trouble and was detained at the police office. He asked him to bring the ID card of the third defendant to be presented to the police. No sooner the policeman looked at the ID card and the first defendant than he knew that it did not belong to him.

The defendants confessed to the crime and that the first defendant did not have an ID card because he entered and stayed in the country illegally.

Recently, the Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal on Tuesday looked into the case of an Asian man who was accused of abusing and possessing hashish. He was seized at the airport and found positive to consumption of hashish, while hashish was also found in his trousers.

On confronting the defendant with the charges before the court, he confessed to the charge of hashish abuse, asserting that he was outside the UAE, while the possession of the drug in his pants was by mistake. He requested the court to grant him a time to defend himself, and permit him to see the case file. The court decided to postpone the hearing, while allowing the accused to see and case’s file and copy it.