Dubai: Three Emirati men have been sentenced to jail terms of five to 25 years on drug charges.
The Dubai Court of First Instance handed 35-year-old S.M. life imprisonment for possessing and trafficking 5kg of hashish.
Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout jailed 25-year-old N.S. for ten years and fined him Dh50,000 after the jury convicted him of possessing hashish for distributional purposes.
The court jailed 24-year-old A.H. for five years and sentenced him to pay a fine of Dh20,000 for possessing hashish and making it available to others for consumption.
Presiding Judge Barghout also sentenced four other Emirati men, A.Y., A.B., M.S. and S.S., each to four years in jail for consuming drugs.
N.S. had earlier alleged in the court that a police officer offered him a deal saying he would not press charges against him [and other suspects] if they testified that S.M. had sold them the contraband.
"I would like to clear my conscience in front of God that S.M. did not sell us hashish. An anti-narcotics police officer offered us a deal saying he would not press drug charges against myself and two others incase we testified against S.M. sold us hashish," claimed N.S. when he defended himself against the charge of trafficking drugs.
Prosecutors had charged N.S., A.B., A.H. and S.M. with possessing more than 5kg of hashish for trading purposes.
N.S. argued in court: "We didn't intend to sell the drugs… A.B., A.H. and I bought the drugs from an Iranian person named Akbar in the Creek. We bought the 5kg for our personal consumption and not for trading purposes." A.H. confirmed N.S.'s claim.
