Two senior employees at the not-for-profit Qatar Foundation have been sentenced to five years in jail and ordered to pay a $823,000 (QR3 million) fine for soliciting a bribe from a private company.

The pair – one of whom is a director in Qatar Foundation’s financial affairs department – was arrested in an undercover sting in 2014. Court proceedings began in May.

According to a report in Doha News on Wednesday, the judge has ruled that Narayan Manugh, an Indian expat who worked as director of payments and revenue at the foundation, and Faisal Al Hajiri, a Qatari who served as director of the financial affairs department, be removed from their positions.

Manugh had reportedly approached the manager of French insurance firm Axa, which had provided health and life insurance to the foundation since 2012, and asked for QR2 million ($549,587) in exchange for the contract’s renewal during a series of meetings last year.

Two senior employees at the not-for-profit Qatar Foundation have been sentenced to five years in jail and ordered to pay a $823,000 (QR3 million) fine for soliciting a bribe from a private company.

The pair – one of whom is a director in Qatar Foundation’s financial affairs department – was arrested in an undercover sting in 2014. Court proceedings began in May.

According to a report in Doha News on Wednesday, the judge has ruled that Narayan Manugh, an Indian expat who worked as director of payments and revenue at the foundation, and Faisal Al Hajiri, a Qatari who served as director of the financial affairs department, be removed from their positions.

Manugh had reportedly approached the manager of French insurance firm Axa, which had provided health and life insurance to the foundation since 2012, and asked for QR2 million ($549,587) in exchange for the contract’s renewal during a series of meetings last year.

The Axa manager told the court in May that he had insisted his firm does not pay bribes. He reportedly told his boss, who alerted the police.

It led to Qatar police arresting the two men in a sting operation at a hotel in Doha in July 2014.

Manugh is to be deported from Qatar after his serving his sentence, the judge said while announcing his verdict.

According to Doha News, the total $823,000 fine to be split between the two defendants is equivalent to the amount of money Manugh allegedly requested in return for renewing the Axa contract.

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QNE

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