Dubai: An employee has been jailed for five years for possessing methamphetamine and punching and kicking drug enforcement officers inside a hospital’s emergency ward where they arrested him.
The 59-year-old Korean employee, S.K., was said to have fiercely resisted a number of drug enforcement officers and repeatedly punched and kicked them when they tried to arrest him in the emergency ward during a sting operation in April.
Despite having entered a not guilty plea, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of resisting arrest, assaulting drug enforcement officers and possessing methamphetamine without any particular intent.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal ordered police wardens in courtroom three to immediately lock up S.K., who was out on bail until the ruling was delivered on Tuesday.
The accused will be deported following the completion of his imprisonment.
According to the charge sheet, drugs prosecutors accused the Korean of consuming methamphetamine, possessing the same substance for unknown purposes and resisting arrest and assaulting arresting officers.
The defendant contended before the court that drug enforcement officers were the ones who assaulted him at the time when they detained him in the hospital in Satwa.
He further claimed that he possessed methamphetamine for medical reasons.
An anti-narcotics police major testified that after they arrested a Filipino, who possessed and consumed methamphetamine, the latter informed them that he had obtained the banned substance from S.K.
“We ordered the Filipino to call the Korean and asked him for methamphetamine… we heard the conversation on the speakerphone. The Filipino and S.K. agreed to meet in the parking lot of the hospital in Satwa. A police squad was dispatched to the location to arrest the accused in a sting operation. S.K. came on foot and walked into the emergency ward… the drug enforcement officers went to arrest him after they identified themselves as policemen. The Korean resisted arrest ferociously. He punched and kicked everyone who tried to approach him. We restrained and arrested him after we outnumbered him. Some of the policemen were hit and injured… a sergeant had to be taken to hospital,” claimed the major.
When questioned by the arresting officers, according to prosecution records, S.K. admitted that a Chinese woman provided him with methamphetamine and he sold it to Filipinos.
“When he agreed with the Filipino to take the banned substance from him, S.K. did not set any price. At the time of his arrest, S.K. was the one who assaulted us and we did not beat him or coerce him to confess,” said the major.
Tuesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
