Dubai: The Dubai Appeal Court has commuted a transit passenger’s 15-year imprisonment to 10 years in jail for smuggling 3.5 kilograms of cocaine in her underwear via Dubai International Airport.
The 24-year-old South African woman, N.F., pleaded not guilty contending that she was a victim of the drug cartel in Brazil. She alleged that she received death threats in case she refused to smuggle the cocaine to South Africa.
Presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif also reduced the defendant’s Dh200,000 fine to Dh50,000.
The accused will be deported after serving her punishment.
“I was a victim of pressure. The mafia threatened to kill me,” claimed N.F. when she pleaded at the appellate court for a reduced punishment.
Drugs prosecutors accused the defendant of smuggling and possessing cocaine in transit.
An Emirati policewoman grew suspicious of N.F. because she appeared to be walking with difficulty at the arrivals terminal and appeared frightened in January this year.
The policewoman spotted the defendant at Terminal 3.
“The way she walked gave me the impression that she had hidden something between her legs. When I searched her, I realised there was a strange bulge in her underwear. She looked embarrassed when she removed her dress. I spotted a big pouch stitched inside the underwear. I made a hole in the pouch and realised that she was carrying a white suspicious substance that turned out to be cocaine. She claimed that she was carrying the drugs to someone called Ubi in South Africa,” the policewoman said.
The appellate judgement remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.
