In 12 cases, a citizen, his wife, and 16 other defendants of different nationalities were convicted of harming public funds, forgery, bribery, profiteering, appropriation, commercial fraud, and disrupting public facilities.
According to the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation, the first defendant and his wife will be imprisoned for 66 years and fined Dh39 million.
Other defendants were also sentenced to prison by the court. Their sentence ranges between three and 15 years. They have also been fined a total of Dh13 million.
Following a referral from the Public Prosecution, the defendants were found guilty of setting up private warehouses, storing expired food and other consumer materials, and reselling them after illegally amending their expiration dates.
They altered the main features and dates of expiration, provided inaccurate and misleading commercial data for the products, including organic food products, which endangered people's health.
In addition, they promoted adulterated and out-of-date products through misleading advertising with inaccurate data intended to induce the public to purchase these products, claiming that they were of good quality and safe to consume.
They have also been convicted for the following: soliciting and accepting gifts in exchange for exerting purported influence by claiming to be able to intervene with a public authority to obtain an advantage; laying a water pipe to connect a farm in breach of regulations and without installing a meter; destroying pipes belonging to the body responsible for water distribution by connecting a water pipe from a farm to the main pipe; resulting in a reduction in the flow of water and disrupting the activities of the public body.
By disconnecting the main protection of the electrical panel, they also intentionally damaged electricity equipment in six properties owned by the first defendant. The short-circuit caused the disruption of electricity provided by the public body, and other beneficiaries lost power as well.
Furthermore, they intentionally damaged the lives of others by disconnecting and randomly connecting the wires of the electrical panels of the first defendant's properties in breach of the conditions and standards, which could lead to an electrical leak and ignition, which would result in serious injury.
In addition, the defendants attempted to appropriate the public road that separated two farms and disrupt public transport by merging the two farms, by unlawfully using the road separating the two agricultural holdings, and by falsifying official documents and electronic files.