Abu Dhabi court upholds gambling case aquittals

ABU DHABI // The Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the acquittals of 23 people accused by the Abu Dhabi Public Prosecution of operating gambling operations, freeing the workers after nine months of detention. The defence argued that four Abu Dhabi government entities had licensed machines at 12 hotels around the emirate for gaming and showed that the machines had been used for gaming, not gambling.
Gambling for money is prohibited under Shariah, which is the basis of many UAE laws. The machines dispensed tokens for use in the hotels' restaurants, the defence said. In some cases the patrons could win prizes like mobile phones. The workers had been acquitted by the Criminal Court of First Instance but the prosecution appealed the verdict. At a July 6 hearing in the Court of Appeal, the defence lawyer Saoud Abdul Aziz said the machines in question had been approved for gaming by Abu Dhabi Municipality, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and the police.
"Every single one of these men and women standing before you, your honour, are innocent," Mr Abdul Aziz said. "They are employees, janitors and handlers. Where is the evidence that any of them were gambling? Where is it?" "These machines were brought into the country and approved upon entry as gaming devices," he said. Profits from the machines were also subject to the tourism tax, he noted. A hearing on July 12 and yesterday's proceedings were not open to the public.
"This is a great victory for all of them," said Mr Abdul Aziz after the court decision yesterday. "There was no evidence against them from the start. Now they can close this chapter of their life and move on." Khaled Moukhtar, one of the defendants, was the operations manager at the Dana and Capital hotels. "I expected this verdict, to be honest," he said. "In order for someone to be accused of gambling, you need a player, a game and money. In our case, they only had a machine and employees."
Mr Moukhtar said that despite the acquittal, he would be wary of installing gaming machines again in his hotels. "I will not put them back in the hotels again, just because I don't want the headache. I do think this problem could occur again to someone else if it is not addressed from the root," he said.
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