Zainal : Running into his own hell...

What would you do if you were told that you have a police criminal case when you just entered a foreign country and were warned that you cannot go out until the case is settled. And to make thing worse, you were not given a clear information at all but ask you to report to a police station... what case? which police station? ... for you to find out...

This is the story of Zainal, who was running into his own hell (and now he's out of it lah)... citer ni panjang sangat, aku cuba ringkas kan seboleh mungkin... and buat kind of summary je lah yer...

Part 1 : Day 1 (jumaat) 25.2.08 -Two guys, a girl and where's the police station?

zainal, my singaporean friend yg keje kat dubai, decided to pay a visit to his frens in Doha sebelum balik for good ke S'pore end of this month. tp bila dia masuk ke doha, kat imigresen bg tahu dia ada police case yg dia kena settlekan kat sini.

so pepagi jumaat zainal dan aku dah kelar, tp sbb Doha ni kind of shut down sebelum solat jumaat, nothing could be done. lepas jumaat Ally (a pinoy nurse) joined us to solve the mystery... we needed her, sbb dia blh cakap arab skit2. tapi kitaorg lunch kat kedai pinoy kat City Center lah dulu.

First, nak cari balai polis. after a year kat sini (worst for Ally after 5 years kat Doha) aku tak tahu mana balai polis kat sini... my idea was to stop at roundabout tpt polis jaga traffic n tanya je.. but nanti kelakar sgt plak... but setelah call member, kitaorg pergi satu balai polis ni kat Al Sadd. tapi setelah bertanya-tanya polis tak dapat tolong. and to shock us, the police can even say, kalau dah kena handcuffed kat airport br lah kiranya bermasalah, kalau tak kena handcuffed tak de la apa masalah. they do not have any computer to check pun, and said no problem sebenarnya. but we were not satisfied. but u know, due to adrenalin rush, aku blh communicate skit2 in arabic utk explain kat arab polis ni... apa masalah zainal... hehehe

Then from there, we went to the airport, sbb mana lah tahu kalau2 blh tahu apa sebenarnya case police tu. tp kitaorg disuruh pergi ke capital security department kat souq utk cari info... so kitaorang pergi lah ke department tu... tp sungguh kelakar, office to set 3.30pm utk selesaikan kes lelaki, while 5pm kes perempuan. and masa kitaorang kat situ dah jam 5.10pm. nasib baik ada Ally yg blh masuk n tanyakan kes itu. tp org kat kaunter suruh kita jumpa captain. tp i think sbb dah malam, polis tu malas layan, dia kata dia tak de computer tak blh nak tolong apa2. but advice us to check with the imigration again.

Still we cannot get the answer what's the case... so we decided to go back to the airport again. pergilah kitaorang ke sana. jumpa polis kat sana... tp we were avoided nak masuk ke imigration sbb polis tu tak paham... dia minta zainal produce boarding pass br blh cek... dgn hampa kitaorg balik.. and plan to continue get the info the next day... :-( still tak tahu balai polis mana yg blh bagi kitaorang info.

Part 2 : The question answered... but how to solve?

so the next day (sabtu), we started our investigation awal... all of us terus pergi ke Capital Security Department. Alhamdulillah, today we treated well dan the captain today at least dapat bg tahu kitaorg apa masalahnya.. dia kata zainal terlibat ngan fraud cheque case. oops... then dia kata esok baru cheque department ni buka and then only we can get more details of the case. bila zainal fikir2 semula masa ni, dia cakap maybe ada kaitan dgn credit card dia yg tak berbayar, but he didn't give out any cheque pun. he did try to pay out the credit card in Dubai, but the bank reluctant to accept the money. He's been told to pay in Doha instead.

so nothing we could do that day, except waiting for the next day. As zainal mmg plan balik sepatutnya malam tu, dia postpone ke hari berikut nya (ahad).Ahad, zainal n me bgn awal pagi n terus ke cheque department. and we met few officers but none tahu berbahasa inggeris... but what we know, the case was related ngan credit card zainal, and the amount owed was QR74k!!! and ada 2 charges, one filed in March the other in August... but sbb communication problem we couldn't ask for advice dr polis tu, so we went to the bank branch and asked for more details... and the bank confirm on the charges and asked us to pay... luckily the amount need to be paid was a lot more lesser than the charges, so we settled there... khallas...

ooops, the case didn't end there, we have to go to the collection department to get a clearance letter from the bank.... which after that we were told, we need to go to the Rayyan court house to clear the court filing. by now, i have to let zainal to settle it by himself, as its already late for me to go to office (sorry zainal, i really felt bad sbb tak blh nak support masa tu)...

then (all these according to zainal)... he waited for 2 1/2 hours untuk dpt a lawyer to entertain his case... lucky him, the lawyer can speak english... but to his surprise the lawyer said, his case can only be solved in 2-3 weeks time... but after dia merayu sepuas2 nya... akhirnya lawyer to agree jumpa judge... and surprisingly they buy zainal's rayuan then bg clearance letter in 1 hour time je... ;-) he then been asked to go back to the cheque dept.

tp cheque department tu dah tutup, but the police kat capital security plak buat issue yg katanya clearance letter dr court to have different file number berbanding file number police... sudah... but then dia pergi mengadu kat bank semula, rupanya bank plak cakap they can get those settled but he can only do it the next day and advice zainal to delay his flight for another 2 days (selasa)... (he even need to postpone balik for good ke s'pore)

the next day (isnin), zainal went to the bank and after few ulang alik dr bank and capital security department dia diberitahu, he needs another letter, a clearance from police which only can be obtained the next day selasa

So hari Selasa... aku hantar zainal ke balai polis jam 8am... and Alhamdulillah... at 10am he called me that everything settled.... he can now safely go out from Doha... :-)

Part 3: lesson learnt...

1. kalau ingat ada hutang, don't ever come back to the country (or better bayar hutang (credit card balance/loans) semua sebelum tinggalkan negara)
2. aku rasa macam sekarang ni, aku patut ada sorang kawan arab yg baik yg blh tolong dlm bab2 birokrasi ni. kenkadang aku rasa ada double standard since we were represented by pinoy on the first day. even muka kitaorang pun mcm pinoy, arab2 ni malas nak layan
3. aku rasa mmg dah jadi wajib utk belajar bahasa arab. we gained more respect i guess and blh lah tolong skit2...

anyway, serba sedikit procedure (if u have similar court case)

1. pergi settle semua outstanding balance and dapatkan clearance letter from the bank to be sent to the court utk mintak clearance letter dr court
2. kena pergi criminal court utk dapatkan clearance letter from the court sbb bank dah file charges kat court, so kira nya nak drop charges lah
3. kena clear nama daripada police data then only you can leave the country
4. dapatkan surat clearance dr bank, so that kalau polis negara kita cari, or kalau benda ni berbangkit, we have a proof benda ni dah settle.

although, it was tiring it is really an experience... an indirect experience for me (i would rather it be indirect sbb tak nak lah aku naikturun court... dapat criminal case plak tu)... to Zainal Alhamdulillah.... akhirnya semua nya selesai dengan selamat... and selamat kembali ke s'pore... :-)

*banyak plot2 dan cerita-cerita yg aku ringkaskan dari citer kat atas tu, some is due to privacy, some sbb aku rasa dah panjang benor citer nya :-) kalau nak tahu lanjut, aku buka for Q&A... hehehe

** please correct my posting if any of the facts were not accurately written here.