JUDGEMENT UPHELD IN GOLD THEFT CASE

Gulf Times, Qatar
June 24 2007

A DOHA appeal court has upheld the one-year imprisonment given to an
Ukrainian man and two Armenian women who were convicted by a lower
court of stealing gold items from a jewellery shop on September
18, 2006.

The court also upheld the six-month imprisonment against two more men –
one Ukrainian and one Armenian – involved in the same case.

The first-degree court had acquitted four other Armenians – two men
and two women – "for lack of evidence" in the same case in mid-April.

All the accused, who had came to Qatar on tourist visas, have also
been found guilty in other gold theft related cases.

The owner of the jewellery shop identified the accused during the
trial. He told the court that he discovered that 15 chains weighing
a total of 570gm were missing after a week of their last visit to
his store.

He identified the jewellery items recovered from the accused at the
police station. The court ordered them to return the items to the shop.

A spokesman for the Armenian community in Qatar, Basel Jawad, told
Gulf Times that the convicts did not intend to appeal against the
verdict in the Supreme Court.