A court in the United Arab Emirates has sided with oil company officials accused of taking a bribe.
In the UAE, two employees of an oil company that were previously found guilty of receiving a bribe of AED 325 thousand ($ 88.4 thousand) from a contractor appealed the verdict in an appeal court. The Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal acquitted the chief manager and engineer due to lack of evidence.
Official court documents indicated that the men were charged after receiving a complaint from the employer. The bribe was allegedly given as a commission in exchange for signing a contract for a construction project with a contractor.
An internal investigation by the company indicated that the money was paid as a bribe. The criminal court of first instance agreed. The defendants, however, challenged the decision in the court of appeal.
