Visa scam dad’s joy

A father is celebrating after a court gave him the green light to bring his daughter into the UAE as he and 17 other businessmen fight bribery charges.

Omid Mohammed showed an approved residency stamp for his five-year-old child, Dima, who will be flying from Kurdistan in northern Iraq to meet him.

“I am so happy, I have been without my children for too long. The other children are in school in Iraq and can come later but Dima can come with her mother to me now,” he said. He showed 7DAYS Dima’s residency permit, that was approved by the UAE Supreme Court.

The court has allowed Mohammed’s children to receive the residency card, as he and the 17 other Iraqi and Iranian businessmen battle bribery charges in the court. Mohammed denies any wrongdoing in a massive visa fraud investigation that centres on a government visa office in Ajman.

Three Emirati visa officials are due to appear in court at a later date, while three Egyptian women are accused of printing the visas have gone on trial with the 17. Two of the women are in custody and the other one, who is pregnant, is on bail.

Mohammed and the 17 others, many of them prominent doctors and professionals, were held in custody for at least two months before being granted bail in March. All 18 say they were approved travel and work visas in the UAE, arranged through agents in Iraq and Iran, without knowing the documents were fraudulent.

Prosecutors say the visas were sold for up to Dhs80,000 each. Iraqi orthopedic specialist, Dr Abraz Jami, was in custody for 72 days before being granted bail. He said that the men knew nothing of the visa investigation until they were arrested at airports on different occasions before they flew home to visit their families. “We are all professional hard-working men who wanted to make a living for our families in the UAE and got thrown into this situation,” he said.

The case was adjourned.

sean@7days.ae