This is the second time the appellate court has heard the case after it was dispatched lower back through the Court of Cassation.
Earlier, a one-of-a-kind panel of judges of the Equal Court sentenced the nine men to at least one month in prison, followed by deportation.
The Court of Misdemeanors had acquitted them all of the rates.
Prosecutors accused the 9 defendants of running a website through which they obtained calls from gamblers in India and Pakistan placing bets on potential winners in cricket matches on May 11, 2016, and prior to that date.
According to the charge sheet, the nine accused gathered the cash with the help of their accomplices in both countries.
After a real estate agent alerted, the police raided a villa in Hor al Anz, Al Muraqqabat. She began checking the villa after receiving some court cases from tenants. The agent claimed to police that she had determined desks, many landlines, mobile telephones, tablets and laptops, computer systems, and operators, who raised her suspicion. Two police officers arrived and searched the villa and observed Dh79,000, SR31,000, and other cash in one-of-a-kind currencies.
Upon their arrest, the defendants admitted to the police that they had been using the internet to intercept calls from cricket fanatics in Pakistan and place bets on which crew would be more likely to win the matches.
DefenDefensel professional Hani Hammouda of Kefah Al Zaabi Firm for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy argued: “The defendants’ memories of the police have been invalid as they were given inside the absence of a prison translator. Besides, the agent’s grievance was malicious, and her plan changed to evict my clients.”
Hammouda contended that no items that could be deemed as proof had been seized. “Many others shared the villa, and the law enforcement officials who made the arrests couldn’t tell for positive to whom the seized computer systems belonged. One accused claimed Dh seventy-nine 000, which became seized, belonged to his administrative center, and was part of the sale revenues. He said he did not speak Arabic and signed a paper after they had been without information. It can contain material.”
“They said the villa comprised nine rooms even though they all stayed in one room. They complained about getting signed papers. They did now not recognize their content. Some signed a police paper out of fear,” the attorney said.
“Moreover, both cops could not remember the incident and adopted the equal statements they had given to the public prosecution. Thus, the entire incident stayed shrouded in doubt, and all defendants maintained their denial.
The absence of concrete and stable evidence to incriminate my clients makes it incumbent upon the courtroom to clean them of any wrongdoing, as per Article 211 of the Criminal Procedure Law,” Hammouda concluded.
The acquittal courtroom ruling is very last.
