AJMAN // Three Emirati government employees have been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes to process residency visas that had already been rejected.
The two civilians and a military employee accused include two women who worked for the Ajman department of residency and foreign affairs.
Ajman Police, in coordination with State Security officers, also arrested eight people of Arab and Asian nationalities on suspicion of acting as middlemen.
Three of them worked in the visa typing centre.
The suspects allegedly processed 55 residency visas for Asian and Arab applicants for Dh75,000 each.
The police have arrested 25 people believed to have been issued these visas. The others have not yet entered the country, said Brig Sheikh Sultan Al Nuaimi, the deputy director of Ajman Police. "Police received a tip-off about these employees and their network," he said. "The police then formed a team and started the search and investigation in an operation called 'Spider Net', carried out in cooperation with State Security Police."
Brig Al Nuaimi said the visas the suspects processed included those rejected for reasons such as failing to provide genuine education certificates. Others had been refused for security reasons.
"The employees knew that the university degrees provided were fake but still processed and issued the residency visas," he said. "These employees have abused their positions, committed a breach of trust and received bribes."
Brig Al Nuaimi said that the 25 people arrested for receiving residency visas had been referred to the public prosecution for offering bribes. The remaining 30 allegedly issued visas will be arrested if they attempt to enter the country.
An employee who receives a bribe faces 10 years in prison and those who offer the bribe face five years.
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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