UAE | Crime
Visitor gets 10 years in jail on drug charge
Confesses to smuggling poppy seeds.
- By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:00 September 28, 2010
Dubai: A visitor is facing ten years in jail after a court convicted him on Monday of smuggling 123 grammes of poppy seeds from his hometown in Pakistan.
The Dubai Court of First Instance also ordered the 44-year-old visitor to pay a fine of Dh50,000 after Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad ruled that he was guilty of smuggling and possessing drugs.
The accused, identified as M.R., pleaded guilty when he appeared in court.
Presiding Judge Abdul Jawad also ordered that the accused be deported after completing his jail term.
The arraignment sheet said M.R. had attempted to smuggle into Dubai 123 grammes of poppy seeds — a banned substance under UAE laws — and with possessing the substance.
When questioned by Dubai Police and prosecutors, M.R. admitted that customs inspectors discovered the poppy seeds hidden in his luggage, police said. He also confessed that he had smuggled the illegal substance from his homeland.
Testimony
An Emirati first inspector at Dubai Customs testified that the crime was detected at Dubai International Airport's Terminal 2.
"I suspected the defendant when he arrived at the arrivals terminal. I accompanied him to a search room … when I searched him personally, I did not find anything. Then I searched his luggage and found a black nylon bag which contained six plastic transparent sacks. The nylon sacks contained grass-like substance which seemed to be poppy seeds. Immediately, he alleged that the confiscated substances did not belong to him … he claimed that he brought them from Pakistan to hand them to another person," the first inspector said during prosecution questioning.
"I am guilty… someone in my hometown gave me the substances and asked me to deliver it to another person in the UAE," claimed M.R. when he appeared in court.
The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
Community Reports
-
Heavy vehicles an emissions hazard
Tighter controls needed to protect health and environment
-
Reaffirm your green values: Say no to plastic
Disposable plastic is a myth and hence it's imperative that anti-pollution campaigns are able to get more people to stop using it altogether
-
Appreciation for honesty
A Dubai taxi driver shows the strength of his values by returning a lost wallet to its owner
-
Rubbish issue needs to be taken care of
A reader raises the problem of garbage bins that are blocking Salam Street in Abu Dhabi, creating a foul smell and tarnishing the image of the area
Latest news
- Court rejects absent doctor's written plea
- Offers pour in to help Abu Dhabi street dweller
- Top diplomats to visit Kenyan woman in hospital
- Elephant footprints found in UAE desert
- Seven arrested over cable theft
- Baby one of 12 kids given free heart surgery
- Palm trees uprooted after weevil strikes
- Ajman groceries banned from selling cigarettes
- When Mammoth elephants walked in Abu Dhabi
- Owners of Trident Grand Residence go to court
- Airport worker critical after burn injury
- ‘Class A' fake notes stump officials
- Halal wine anyone?
- Water filter sales scam exposed
- Mum, 81, sells home to save son's Dubai property
