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Man caught in Dubai for debt back in 1998, released thanks to Ramadan donations

A man who was arrested in Dubai last year for unpaid credit card bills from 1998 amounting to Dh 50,000 was recently released following huge Ramadan donations from two anonymous philanthropists.

The man, who hails from Egypt, worked in Dubai during the 1990s, got married to a Filipina and had a baby girl. However, the couple separated in 1998 as the mother and daughter came home to the Philippines after an agreement with the father who then returned to Egypt.

Since then, the father regularly visited his daughter in the Philippines until recently when a record of his pending credit card debt surfaced and he got arrested at the transit area in Dubai last year.

“He had a credit card with unpaid bills when he left the UAE in 1998 and had accumulated a debt of Dh50,000, but this was paid and he was able to return to his country after two philantropists donated cash recently to release prisoners,” said First Lietutenant Habeeb Al Zarouni, Director of the Humanitarian Care Section at Dubai Police as per a report from Gulf News.

The Egyptian was among the 21 prisoners from the Dubai Central Jail at Al Awir who were set free after their debts got settled by the anonymous donors, with their total donations amounting to Dh 2 million, as per Brigadier Ali Al Shamali, Director of the Correctional and Punitive Establishment Department at Dubai Police.

“Dubai Police is keen to sign agreements with charitable institutions and double our humanitarian efforts as part of the Year of Tolerance,” said Al Shamali.

All 21 prisoners also received their airline tickets to fly back home upon their release.

 

 

Staff Report

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