Dubai: A carpenter working with Dubai Police has been accused of accepting a bribe to smuggle illegal pills to an inmate at Dubai Central Prison.
The 53-year-old Sudanese carpenter, H.H., was said to have accepted Dh6,600 and a mobile phone as bribery to smuggle the pills to the Emirati prisoner in December 2014.
Prosecutors accused H.H. of accepting a bribe, possessing tramadol for transportation purposes and smuggling banned materials [mobile phones and illegal pills] into prison. The 48-year-old Emirati inmate, A.S., and a 27-year-old Pakistani worker, A.M., were charged with bribing the carpenter and possessing 161 tramadol pills.
“Yes, I am guilty… I accepted bribe [cash and mobile] to smuggle banned materials to A.S.,” the Sudanese said when he entered his plea before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday. However, he denied the charge of possessing tramadol, contending before presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi that he did not know what the substance was that he handed over to the inmate.
“I smuggled a mobile phone but not drugs,” he argued in court.
When asked by the presiding judge why he took cash from the duo, H.H. said: “I was going through a critical financial situation and needed the money. A.S. asked A.M. to give me the money against smuggling a mobile into the prison.”
A.M. entered a not guilty plea.
“I owed A.S. money and had to pay it back to him. As per A.S.’s request, I gave the money to H.H.,” the Pakistani contended.
A.S. pleaded innocent.
“Why did you lend A.M. Dh6,600?” presiding judge Al Shamsi asked the Emirati defendant.
“He is my friend and needed money to rectify his visa status. We did not posses any tramadol or any banned pills. I have Aids, hepatitis, diabetes and hypertension. H.H. took the money without my consent. I want my money and the mobile phone back… he took them in an illegal manner,” replied A.S. A police lieutenant claimed to prosecutors that an informant alerted them that the carpenter had been abusing his job and smuggling prohibited materials to inmates against money.
“The informant told us that H.H. had accepted a bribe to smuggle phones and banned pills. A special investigative team was formed to look into the informant’s tip… thereafter we learnt that H.H. hid a mobile phone in the washroom’s ceiling. We raided the washroom and found the mobile and a pack of biscuits hidden there. The next day we apprehended H.H. and took him in for questioning. The latter admitted that he had been smuggling banned materials to A.S. for a while. Police raided his residence and found several mobile phones and a pack of cigarettes that contained tramadol pills. H.H. alleged that he took the materials from A.M., who was arrested shortly after that in Deira,” testified the lieutenant.
Presiding judge Al Shamsi said the court will appoint lawyers to defend the suspects when it reconvenes on July 12.
