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Hearing in Fraud and Breach of Trust Case Postponed

DUBAI - The Court of Misdemeanors postponed on Monday the hearing in the fraud and breach of trust case involving a former minister of state.

The defence lawyers of the four defendants asked the presiding judge to put the hearing off to November 10 so that the court could subpoena the witnesses. Hussain Al Jazeeri and Samir Jaafar are representing the ex- minister of state and his son, 26-year-old Mohammed.

The others in the case are, a 44-year-old US citizen and an Indian finance director, aged 48. All had in the opening hearing pleaded not guilty. The defence counsel Abdelmonem Suwaidan is representing the American and the Indian.

“The hearing was adjourned as the original presiding Judge Hamad Abdellatif Abdel Jawad was absent. Not all the witnesses were present at the court on Monday,” Al Jazeeri told Khaleej Times.

Hassan Arab, the legal representative of the Lebanese woman who lodged the complaint, told Khaleej Times that the prosecution team was expecting witnesses to prove the claims of the plaintiff. He did not disclose the number of witnesses.

The former minister of state Dr Khalifa Bakhit Al Falasi, 51, had pleaded not guilty to the charges of fraud and breach of trust at the beginning during the opening hearing on September 15.

“There is no case in the first place. It is a contrived and unjustified case,” Dr Al Falasi was quoted by a news agency.

He is accused of deceiving the plaintiff, Lebanese Maysoun Jamal, heir of Global Information Technology Company into signing a cession bond of her shares by alleging that he was a 51 per cent partner.

He is also accused of breach of trust. As per the court papers he hid from the plaintiff that her late brother owned a property in Al Ghusais worth millions of dirhams. The three other defendants allegedly assisted him in swindling the complainant.

Maysoun Jamal is the sister of late businessman Hassan Jamal, who was a business partner in Dubai.

Sources close to the case say that the case dates back to 1995 when the late Hassan Jamal established a business group in Dubai and took the former minister in as a ‘partner’. The lady alleged that after the death of her brothers who used to take care of the family business in 2005, the former minister made a settlement with them on the assets of the Global Information Technology Co. on the basis that he was a partner owning 51 per cent of the company’s shares.

The plaintiff found out later that he was just a sponsor rather than a ‘partner’.

mary@khaleejtimes.com