Khalifa orders Dh568m loan waiver for Emiratis

Abu Dhabi: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has ordered the settlement of defaults on personal loans of 368 Emiratis, amounting to about Dh568 million, a Wam report said yesterday.

Shaikh Khalifa's gesture covers loan defaults of citizens whose debt burdens are less than Dh5 million, "be they in detention, pending trial, convicted, or [are] settling their debts through instalment schedules set by the courts".

The waiver follows a recommendation submitted by the Supreme Committee of the Debts Settlement Fund for Citizens with limited income, chaired by Ahmad Juma Al Za'abi, Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs.

A senior official told Gulf News this is the second group of defaulters after the January waiver which covered 6,830 Emiratis each with debts of less than Dh1 million.

"Any Emirati defaulter in detention, being tried or convicted can apply to benefit from the Settlement Fund for low-income citizens by applying in person to the Ministry of Presidential Affairs or online at www.mopa.ae"

Under the latest amnesty move, those in prison will be released and have their loans settled in accordance with the settlement mechanism, which includes deduction of 25 per cent of their monthly salaries and an undertaking that they will not take any further loans until the current liabilities are settled.

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Court orders drug smuggler to prove his age

Dubai: A court is waiting to find out if a suspect is under 21 years old, to decide whether to grant him leniency, after he confessed to smuggling 3.1 kilograms of heroin in transit.

Prosecutors charged the Pakistani passenger, who records show is under 21, with possessing heroin and smuggling it via Dubai International Airport. The suspect, M.A., pleaded guilty in the Dubai Court of First Instance.

Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad adjourned the case until prosecutors provides an official document that confirms M.A.'s exact age. The defendant said he was born on September 19, 1992.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said M.A. unlawfully brought two plastic bags of heroin which he intended to smuggle to Bangkok. According to the Criminal Procedures Law and Penal Code, a judge has the discretion to consider a suspect's young age [below 21 years] as a factor of leniency.

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