Hospital visit ends in narcotics confession

Dubai: A Bahraini visitor has confessed to possessing drugs after doctors treating him at a hospital for severe stomach ache found the narcotic substances concealed in rubber pellets in his stomach.

"I am guilty your honour… I smuggled the drugs for personal usage," said the 37-year-old Bahraini suspect when he defended himself at the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.

Prosecutors said a 35-year-old Pakistani doctor discovered the foreign objects in A.A.'s stomach when she treated him at the hospital.

"I suspected that the rubber pellets contained a suspicious material which looked like drugs… A.A. was admitted to hospital suffering a severe stomach ache. He also suffered body quivers. I gave him a laxative and when he used the bathroom, it was realised that he had swallowed rubber pellets," the doctor testified in her statement before prosecutors.

The Public Prosecution charged A.A. with unlawfully bringing in 83 rubber pellets which contained 231 grams of methamphetamine drug for his personal use.

When asked by Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad about what he wanted from the court, A.A. replied: "I deserve the punishment you deem as convenient."

A Nigerian nurse claimed in her statement: "I was supervising the treatment of A.A. after he was admitted to hospital… we gave him a strong laxative to make him use the toilet. Two hours later, the suspect entered the restroom and excreted the rubber pellets. I informed my supervisor who reported Dubai Police's Anti-Narcotics Department."

A verdict will be heard later this month.