A motorist who swore at a police sergeant who was tailgating him had his six-month prison sentence reduced to one month by the Appeals Court today.
FM, an American aviation engineer, was sentenced by the Criminal Court on the grounds that he had confessed to raising his middle finger to the officer - yet he told the Appeals Court that he meant to confess only to raising his hand, not the finger.
His lawyer Musalam Al Katheeri added that the original verdict was partly based on the testimony of a third person, "but there is not mention of [this person] anywhere in the case files".
The American will now be set free as he has already served a month in prison. The Appeals Court also overturned the decision by the Criminal Court to deport him after his sentence.
The Criminal Court heard at the man's original trial that he made the rude gesture after being tailgated by the policeman, who flashed his front lights at him in an effort to make him move over.
The police sergeant said he then stopped the man and asked him if he had indeed made a rude gesture. He told the court that the American admitted raising his middle finger, saying it was a normal act in the US. The sergeant said he told the man it was forbidden in the UAE and filed a complaint against him.
hdajani@thenational.ae
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)
Date started: August 2021
Founder: Nour Sabri
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace
Size: Two employees
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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