UAE jails five over alleged Saddam money fraud-paper

DUBAI, Jan 8 (Reuters) A United Arab Emirates court has jailed five people after they claimed to have access to money belonging to Saddam Hussein in order to defraud a financier into paying a fee for them to release it, a newspaper said today.

The convicts, three Syrians, a Turk and a Chadian, sought to defraud 120,000 dirhams (32,680 dollars) on the promise they would share million belonging to the executed former Iraqi president with the financier, but they never had access to any of Saddam's money, Emirates Today said.

Their plot was to convince the financier that UAE authorities had confiscated 20 million dollars of Saddam's money after they tried to smuggle it into the UAE and demand a fee of 120,000 dirhams to release it.

The five were sentenced by a Dubai court last week to a year in jail after which they will be deported, it said.

REUTERS AB BST1944