Dubai // Three policemen were part of a group that kept gold worth Dh1.23 million found at Dubai airport and tried sell it on, a court heard.
A cleaner found the gold plates and gave them to Emirati officer A A, 25.
But he and a colleague, Bangladeshi S S A, 26, decided to smuggle the gold out of the airport and sell it, prosecutors told Dubai Criminal Court.
The plates had been lost while being carried through the airport by E K, from Uganda. He arrived in Dubai on August 14 with a case of gold that he was to deliver to a jewellery shop.
“I got lost and headed to departures instead of arrivals. When I got back to the right building I took the stairs,” he said.
“I felt the bag hitting the stairs with every step I took. Then I saw its zipper had slightly opened. I thought this was due to its banging on the floor, so I did not mind too much.”
When he arrived at security, one package of gold containing seven plates was missing.
“I was carrying almost 25 kilograms of gold with me, and this was not the first time I had delivered gold to Dubai,” he said.
He said he did not think anyone had opened the bag and stolen the gold.
The officer who took the gold gave it to the Bangladeshi’s father and his wife to sell.
They went to two others – B Y, 57, and B A, 43 – to help them sell the plates on August 17.
But two days later both were arrested and the following day all other defendants were detained after a jeweller to whom they tried to sell the plates contacted the police.
Prosecutors charged the Emirati officer with embezzling the plates.
The Bangladeshi and another Emirati policeman, M A, 23, were both charged with aiding and abetting.
The Bangladeshi’s father, 56, his wife, 50, and the two others were charged with possessing the plates.
All seven denied the charges at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday.
The next hearing was set for January 13.
salamir@thenational.ae