Car Impounded

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My car was impounded last week in Mirqab in one of the intense traffic campaigns. All I did was stop by the roadside for a minute to drop off someone from my car. It took less than a minute and was about to take off when a police officer stopped me and took away my license and registration.

In spite of repeated requests, he remained unmoved. After almost 45 minutes of waiting, I was asked to follow him to the KPTC bus depot in Sharq, where he gave me a traffic citation which was in Arabic and also asked to sign some papers, all in Arabic.

I would like to know what are my rights as an expatriate to defend this situation, because I only realized that the police had impounded the car when I was told a KPTC employee to remove my belongings from the car. Is it correct for an officer to impound my car in the above mentioned situation? My car is a new vehicle with proper registration, valid Civil ID etc. Looking for your valuable comments

Name withheld
Answer: The main fault in this regard is yours, you signed on the citation papers without even asking what that officer was booking you for and now you will most likely land in trouble.

The reason we are saying this is that you could have been cited for a minor offense like parking in a noparking zone or even a major offense like operating as a taxi and carrying passengers – which looks most likely in your case or else the car would not have been impounded.

The traffic officer was legally right in booking you but you aggravated the situation for yourself by signing on the citation. So, the only option left for you is check what you were booked for and then follow the legal procedure if the offence is a major one in the Traffic Court.

If you were booked for parking in a no parking zone you will just have to pay the fine to retrieve your car. But please approach the Traffic Department to find out why you were booked because that will determine your course of action.

This news has been read 9143 times!