A Dubai court presided over by Judge Hussein Hamdi has sentenced the owner of Rahamaniyya Group and Ultimate Oil & Gas, Abdulrahman Bashar, to one year in prison for financial misconduct involving CI Energy Company, an oil and gas firm.
This marks the second time in less than five years that Bashar has been sentenced to jail.
In 2020, a UK court sentenced him to ten months in prison for flouting court orders in a case involving Sahara Energy Resources.
According to court documents obtained by Premium Times, the UAE court delivered its verdict on Thursday, 30 January , 2025. The 48-year-old businessman failed to appear in court despite being duly notified.
Bashar was charged by UAE prosecutors for issuing seven cheques totalling 126.45 million dirhams from an Emirates Islamic Bank account, with a signature mismatch that rendered them invalid.
Prosecutors argued that he deliberately signed the cheques in a manner that prevented them from being cashed.
During the trial, the court, Judge Hamdi, found that the evidence—including statements from CI Energy’s agent, Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein, copies of the cheques, and account statements—confirmed Bashar’s wrongdoing.
“The crime of issuing a cheque is established merely by handing it over to the beneficiary, knowing that there are no available funds,” the court ruled.
Bashar’s defence team attempted to challenge the evidence, but the court dismissed their arguments, stating that his denial was a strategy to evade punishment.
To expedite justice, the court referred a related civil compensation claim to a competent civil court for further investigation.
In February 2020, Justice Butcher of the England and Wales High Court sentenced Bashar to ten months in prison for disobeying multiple court orders.
The case was initiated by Sahara Energy Resources after Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas failed to supply 6,400.49 metric tonnes of gas as per an agreement.
Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas was also fined £500,000, while its manager, Adebowale Aderemi, was ordered to pay a £10,000 penalty.
