Lawyers defend former minister in fraud case

Lawyers defending a former minister and two managers who are charged with defrauding a businesswoman, reiterated on Sunday in Dubai's highest court that she knew the ex-minister partnered her late brother before waiving his share. The court will deliver its judgment soon.

"My Emirati client, K.B., didn't defraud or deceive the Lebanese businesswoman, M.J., who was aware that my client partnered her late brother in an information technology company, before she willingly waived her stake& When she signed the wavier agreement she was fully aware that K.B. was her brother's partner," K.B.'s lawyer Samir Jaafar told an eight-judge panel at the Dubai Court of Cassation yesterday.

On May 28, the Dubai Appeals Court acquitted the former state minister, K.B., American general manager, S.A., and Indian financial manager, P.M., of swindling and misleading the woman in order to waive her stake in the IT company. Appeals Judge Mustafa Al Shennawi scrapped the initial verdict - two-year jail term for each of the defendants - and acquitted K.B., S.A. and P.M.