Dubai: A footballer has lost his appeal against a 10-year jail sentence for carrying 1.8kg of cocaine while transiting through Dubai on his way to Abidjan.
In the incident at Dubai International Airport in May, an airport policeman detained the defendant — from Guinea-Bissau — after finding 16 pouches containing cocaine stitched into a pair of shorts.
The Dubai Appeal Court upheld a 10-year jail imprisonment against the defendant and fined him Dh50,000.
The defendant pleaded not guilty, but presiding judge Eisa Mohammad Al Sharif found him guilty as charged.
He will be deported following completion of his sentence.
The defendant argued before the court that he is a professional footballer and played for a Brazilian club.
“I did not know I was carrying drugs. I was transporting the pair of shorts as a favour to a friend,” he said.
“The friend told me to give it to his brother in Abidjan. I was flying from Brazil to Abidjan via Dubai,”
When asked whether he knew the nature of what he was carrying, the defendant claimed his friend told him that it was a special powder used to clean gold.
The policeman who detained the defendant testified that he found the defendant’s behaviour suspicious as soon as he exited the plane.
“I searched him and found the cocaine hidden in his shorts. He told me that his friend asked him to take the substance to the Ivory Coast for some money,” the policeman said.
The ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.
