DUBAI // A policeman previously sentenced to two years in jail for asking a Saudi motorist for Dh3,000 to let him off a driving offence was back in court on Tuesday for a retrial.
Prosecutors at Y A’s original trial in April – where he was not only jailed but removed from his job for three years and fined Dh3,000 – said that on January 19, Saudi Arabian F G stopped his car in the middle of the road at Jumeirah Beach Residence to say hello to a friend.
Y A, 30, who was in his patrol car, spotted this and took the Saudi’s driving licence. He told the tourist that he would have his car impounded and be fined Dh10,000.
F G said in records that he asked the policeman to let him go and that he would not do it again, especially as he was leaving the country that night.
He added that Y A then took him aside and said that he would let it go if he paid him Dh5,000.
“I started haggling about the money and managed to lower it to Dh3,000, then told him that I will get the money because I didn’t have that amount on me at the moment,” F G said. Instead, the Saudi went to a police station and reported him.
The officer was entitled a retrial because he was sentenced without entering a plea or being present in the first trial.
On Tuesday, he entered a not guilty plea and the next hearing is on June 8.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
