An Ooredoo employee who sued after being cleared of stealing more than QR24 million from the company has been awarded several hundred thousand riyals in compensation for her plight.
The award was issued by a Doha court late last month, but the lawsuit only came to light in an Al Watan report this week. According to the publication, the woman involved was a Qatari citizen.
Court documents obtained by Doha News state that the woman was working as a treasurer for Ooredoo (then Qtel) in 2010 when she was suspended over embezzlement suspicions.
She was jailed for 35 days while an investigation was conducted, but an auditing committee delegated by the court found no evidence of a deficit in the company’s coffers.
The employee was acquitted in November 2013, a judgment that Ooredoo did not appeal.
Sued for damages
Three months later, in February of this year, the employee filed a lawsuit claiming emotional and financial damages to the tune of QR20 million.
According to Qatar law, reporting criminal offenses is not considered a wrongdoing that merits compensation – unless the person/entity who reported the offense made the accusation recklessly or for political reasons.
Because the audit committee found that Ooredoo did not follow proper procedure in investigating its suspicions of embezzlement, the court ruled that the accusation made against the defendant was recklessly made.
The court documents state that compensation in this case was left to the discretion of the judge, who ordered the company to pay QR700,000 to the defendant.
It is not clear if Ooredoo is disputing the finding. A spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Thoughts?
Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that the employee filed for QR20 million in damages, not QR2 million.