UAE | Crime
Court hands pair life sentences for smuggling heroin
Two visitors will spend 25 years in jail each for smuggling in 22 kilograms of heroin in a fruit and vegetables consignment with the intent to peddle the drugs in Dubai.
- By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
- Published: 23:42 January 13, 2009
Dubai: Two visitors will spend 25 years in jail each for smuggling in 22 kilograms of heroin in a fruit and vegetables consignment with the intent to peddle the drugs in Dubai.
The Dubai Court of First Instance awarded each of the convicts, 65-year-old A.Q. and 31-year-old S.F., life sentences each. A life sentence is equivalent to 25 years in prison according to UAE Laws.
Anti-narcotics police arrested the duo in a sting operation and during which the accused tried to sell 7 kilograms of heroin for $91000 (Dh333,000) and $13,000 (about Dh47,700) per kg.
The convicts will be deported after serving their imprisonment.
The Public Prosecution charged them with illegally possessing 22 kilograms of heroin with the intent to sell them. They were also charged with abetting their compatriot H.S., who is still at large, in smuggling the drugs.
Confession
A.Q. confessed to the charges before court while his associate pleaded not guilty.
An anti-narcotics police corporal testified: "A police informant told us that a Pakistani man was looking for someone to buy heroin. One day the man called me from Ajman and I asked him for a sample. He spoke to me in Urdu language.
"When we met, he said he had been trafficking drugs for many years and told to me that they smuggled the last amount from Pakistan to Dubai Cargo Village... he handed me the sample in a small box of a cell-phone's memory card."
The verdict is still subject to appeal.
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