Food inspector sentenced to four years, 4,000 dinar fine for bribery

The Court of Appeal, presided over by Counselor Nasr Salem Al Hayd, sentenced a Public Authority for Food and Nutrition inspector to four years in prison, removed her from her position, and imposed a fine of 4,000 dinars in a bribery case. The court also handed the same penalty to the expatriate mediator involved, as reported by Al Qabas newspaper.

The Public Prosecution charged the first accused, an inspector at the authority, with accepting a bribe of 2,000 dinars to overlook violations at a central market in the Hawalli governorate and failing to report them to her agency. The second accused, an expatriate, was charged with mediating the completion of the bribery offense.

The incident is summarized in a report from an Asian public prosecutor’s officer who was working at one of the central markets when the accused, along with others wearing food safety uniforms, entered and identified themselves.

They issued nineteen violations, with four of them attributed to the accused. After their departure, the second accused approached the officer, presenting all the violations and stating that their total value was 3,200 dinars. He offered to pay 2,000 dinars to have the violations destroyed. Once the witness informed the license holder, the detective was alerted, leading to the arrest of the accused in an ambush after they exchanged the violations and the 2,000 dinars, counting them beforehand.