Statement from the Office of the Attorney General

“After the Attorney General ordered that the defendants be referred to court on charges of offering and accepting bribes, mediating in bribery, abuse of official authority, and money laundering, the Criminal Court of First Instance convicted a Qatari female employee and four individuals of Arab nationalities, while acquitting one of the defendants. The Public Prosecution had initiated investigations into the incident based on a report submitted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry against one of its female employees for committing a number of administrative violations. These violations consisted of processing transactions for granting commercial licenses (for shisha cafés and massage and relaxation activities) to one establishment in violation of the law and the procedures regulating such activities, and receiving bribes in return from the other convicted individuals. The total amount of the bribes reached QAR 201,140. The investigations and inquiries, supported by the confessions of several of the convicted individuals, confirmed that they had committed the offenses. The court sentenced the employee to four years’ imprisonment and a fine equal to the value of the bribe for the crimes of accepting bribes and abuse of official authority. She was also sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and fined QAR 2 million for the crime of money laundering. The Egyptian national who offered the bribe was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and a fine equal to the value of the bribe for the crime of bribing a public employee. He was also sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and fined QAR 2 million for money laundering, in addition to deportation from the country after completion of his sentence. The court also sentenced the remaining convicted individuals (who hold Tunisian and Egyptian nationalities) to four years’ imprisonment each, along with financial fines, on the charge of participating in offering bribes to a public employee. The court further ruled to acquit one of the defendants of the charges brought against him

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