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Hisham Al-Jundi
Doha
The Court of Appeal has upheld the five-year jail term awarded to 13 employees of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) for embezzlement of around QR5 million.
The court has also ordered dismissal of the municipal employees from their jobs and directed the first five defendants to refund the amount they received as bribe and commission.
The convicts have also been slapped with a fine equivalent to the amount of the embezzled money.
According to the case details, the defendants have been accused of criminal conspiracy, embezzlement of public money, illegally receiving profits in day to day official operation, and bribing official.
The defendants also admitted to manipulating prices of spare parts required by the Mechanical Equipment Department. They got them at a higher price and received the balance money.
The crime was committed with the help of the sixth, seventh and eighth defendants.
The defendants from the first till the fifth are public officials and paid QR4,885,564 from the ministry's treasury for the defendants sixth to eighth to receive the difference money amounting to QR1,222,632.
The defendants ninth till 12th are members of car spare part committee in the Mechanical Equipment Department. They deliberately approved the purchase despite having only one price offer.
By doing so, these defendants violated the law regulating tenders and auctions No 26 for the year 2005, noting that the financial damages resulted from such a crime worth QR4,885,564.
