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Man who made hoax call gets jail

DUBAI - An Indian national who called the police operations room emergency number 999 from Dubai and reported an imminent attack by the 'Usama bin Laden Group', a claim which was found to be unfounded, has been sentenced by the Dubai Court of First Instance to two months in jail. He has also been fined Dh1,500.

The defendant, H.O., 46, had apparently made the call at 55 minutes past midnight on September 15 last year and spoke to the police operator for around two minutes in which he finally said that there was going to be a "problem" by the "Usama bin Laden Group" at a villa in Deira, near the Fish Roundabout, and closed the line.

Security authorities were alerted and the claim was found to be unfounded. Investigations as to the identity of the caller traced the mobile phone used to make the call to a building contractor, H. O., who was arrested by police on September 17 and taken in for questioning.

The defendant denied he was the one who made the call to 999. He claimed that on the night in question he was walking near a Deira shopping mall after midnight when a man with an Urdu accent approached him and asked if he could use his mobile phone.

Although the defendant said he made it clear to the individual that his phone had only a few credits left, the man pleaded with him and insisted he be allowed to make a call.

The defendant finally agreed and the stranger did in fact make a call which lasted around two minutes and the man then returned the phone to the defendant. The lack of witnesses to support such a claim by the defendant led the court to convict him of filing a false police report.