Nine accused of counterfeiting trade licence

Doha Criminal Court is reviewing the case of nine persons accused of counterfeiting official documents to issue four commercial registrations for non-existent companies in the field of contracting, trade, beautification, and sports facilities.

Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported that the defendants were four Egyptian men, two GGC men, a Lebanese man, a Jordanian man, and one unidentified person working as a company manager.Two of the defendants, who used to work in one of the municipalities in Qatar, have been accused by the public prosecution of colluding with the others to accept counterfeit documents as a basis for issuing a number of commercial licences and evade the full payment of the necessary government fees and charges.The prosecution accused them of abusing the powers and duties of their official posts to unlawfully process counterfeit documents, even though they had prior knowledge about this.The prosecution also accused the others of colluding to obtain licences through deception and fraud by submitting documents for companies that do not exist.The case is remains ongoing.