Man Acquitted In Fake Somali Currency Case

Dubai, November 07, 2006 – A court acquitted a visitor of circulating 150 billion Somali shillings (about Dh37.5 million) in counterfeit currency yesterday.

The Dubai Court of Cassation cleared suspect S.A., a 39-year-old Canadian of Somali origin, for lack of evidence. The Dubai Public Prosecution charged S.A. of possessing and circulating fake money.

The criminal laboratory said earlier that six banknotes of 1,000 Somali shillings, issued by the Somali Central Bank, carried the same serial number.

After the courts of First Instance and Appeal acquitted him, the public prosecution appealed the verdict to the highest court which dismissed the case against the Canadian for insufficient evidence.

The judge said the suspect had no intention to circulate the money in Dubai.

At an earlier stage the suspect's lawyer, Bader Mohammad Al Gurg, of Horizons Advocates and Legal Consultants said: "The money was being printed in Singapore and the Somali government assigned S.A. to re-export it to Somalia via Dubai."

The lawyer explained that the six banknotes carried the same serial number due to a printing error and it was not counterfeit. A top Somali minister told the court earlier "the money is government-owned and not fake".

Source: GULF NEWS

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