Dubai: A musician and her friend have been accused of possessing hashish for personal use.

Drug enforcement officers raided the flat where the 40-year-old Swedish musician, N.J., and her 45-year-old Tunisian housemate, N.M., lived at Dubai Sports City on August 20.

Drugs prosecutors accused the two women of possessing three cigarettes stuffed with 0.47 grams of hashish, a pouch containing 0.74 grams of hashish, a similar piece weighing 0.23 grams and another piece weighing 0.11 grams of hashish and two cigarettes stuffed with 0.2 grams of hashish.

“I am not guilty. The seized materials did not belong to me. I do not consume banned substances at all,” said the musician before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

Meanwhile N.M., an employee, told presiding judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi: “I have never consumed or seen drugs. I did not possess or use any banned substance.”

“Who is the owner of the seized materials? Wasn’t the hashish seized in the flat where both of you lived?” the judge asked the two defendants, who appeared before the court in pink prison dresses.

The women said the drugs were not theirs and they had never taken hashish.

An Emirati anti-narcotics police captain testified that an informant said the suspects had hashish at their flat.

“We obtained prosecutors’ permission to raid the flat and have it searched. An anti-narcotics police team headed to the flat, and at around 9.30am, N.J. answered the door. We searched the one-bedroom flat and found different forms of hashish. We also found tools that are used by drug addicts such as a needle and special aluminium paper. Three pieces of hashish were also found inside chewing gum wrappers. Upon confronting her with the findings, the Swedish woman confessed that she consumed hashish and got it from an Omani man. We asked N.J. to call her housemate [N.M.] and ask her to come to the house. We waited in the flat until 1pm when the Tunisian woman came. We arrested the suspects and took them for questioning,” said the captain.

Records did not mention whether the women were tested for drugs.

Presiding judge Al Mahdi refused to release the defendants on bail.

The suspects’ lawyer will present his defence argument when the court reconvenes on December 8.