DUBAI // A man who forged documents to obtain 12 Etisalat sim cards that were then used to make more than Dh1 million in unpaid calls and texts has been sentenced to six months in jail.
MY, 23, from Pakistan, forged 12 Etisalat applications, 12 residency visa copies, seven labour cards and 12 salary certificates and submitted them to Etisalat during January 2011, Dubai Criminal Court was told.
He confessed to four charges of forgery and a charge of using forged documents but denied causing Dh1.273 million in loses that resulted from the use of the sim cards.
“I sold the sim cards after obtaining them and those who bought them caused the loses,” MY said.
SA, a 36-year-old Emirati accountant at Etisalat, said he contacted the manager of the company mentioned on the salary certificates to ask about the cards.
“He said that none of them were issued by his company and that the certificates must have been forged,” said SA, adding that police were then informed.
MY will be deported after completing his jail term.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
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HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
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Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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