Dubai: Two employees who possessed five methamphetamine pills for trading purposes will each have to serve life terms after losing their appeals.

The two Bangladeshi employees, 22-year-old S.S. and 25-year-old A.H., were arrested by drug enforcement officers during a sting operation following a tip-off that they were trading in a mind-altering substance.

The Dubai Appeal Court rejected the duo’s appeal and upheld their original sentences.

Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm also confirmed a Dh50,000 fine for each of the defendants, who will be deported after serving their jail terms.

Records said S.S. rolled on the ground to avoid being handcuffed during the sting operation in October 2013.

According to the charge sheet, S.S. and A.H. possessed five methamphetamine pills for trafficking purposes. S.S. was solely accused of consuming amphetamine and methamphetamine and resisting arrest.

A police officer testified that S.S. fiercely resisted arrest when police tried to handcuff him.

‘Sick mother’

“We fell on the ground. He rolled over back and forth until my colleagues and I restrained him. He begged us to let him go claiming that he was in desperate need of the money to help his sick mother,” the officer testified in court.

The convicts claimed that they did not posses the substances for trading purposes.

“I possessed the methamphetamine for consumption purposes,” said S.S.

His partner in crime said: “I had nothing to do with the pills.”

A drug enforcement officer said an informant alerted Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics department that the duo wanted to sell methamphetamine for Dh350.

“A police patrol was dispatched to Al Muteenah where a deal was arranged. The informant posed as a potential buyer and, once he sealed the deal, he signalled for the drug enforcement officers who raided the place and arrested the duo. A.H. was handcuffed immediately while S.S. refused to surrender,” said the officer.

An anti-narcotics police lieutenant said S.S. refused to answer when they questioned him.

“He persistently begged us to help him. The informant claimed that S.S. sold the methamphetamine for Dh300 and not Dh350,” said the lieutenant.

The ruling remains subject to appeal within 28 days before the Cassation Court.