Dubai: Two managers won their appeal on Sunday after a court overturned their punishments and cleared them of importing 6.3 million captagon pills for promotional purposes.

In January, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the two Syrian managers, A.N. and A.Y., and their countryman driver, U.A., for three years each and fined them Dh50,000 for importing the banned pills and possessing them for promotional purposes.

The trio had pleaded not guilty and denied the accusation of having imported the 6.3 million pills that weighed nearly 1 tonne in metal pipes to promote them in the UAE.

Drug enforcement officers had apprehended the suspects during a sting operation that followed an informant’s tip off that the Syrian trio had imported the pills from Syria and stored them in a warehouse in Al Aweer fruit and vegetables market in November 2014.

The trio appealed the primary ruling and sought to be acquitted before the Dubai Appeal Court.

Prosecutors also appealed the primary judgement and sought to stiffen their punishments.

Prosecution records said the trio imported to Jebel Ali Port a shipment containing 165 metal pipes, inside which the captagon pills were secretly packed in 55 sacks.

According to Sunday’s verdict, presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif upheld U.A.’s punishment [three years jail and a Dh50,000 fine].

Citing lack of corroborated evidence, A.N. and A.Y. were acquitted after presiding judge Al Sharif overturned their primary rulings.

“My client did not know that the imported pipes contained any banned substances. The pipes were stacked beside his warehouse in Al Aweer for four days but he was not aware that it contained the banned substance since the consignment had been in a warehouse in another emirate for 30 days. The shipment was released from the port in a legal way which means that it had been inspected by the Customs officials … A.Y. would have never accepted the pipes in the warehouse t had he known that it was illegal,” A.Y.’s Lawyer Hashem Malek Al Beloushi argued before the appellate court.

An anti-narcotics police major had testified that U.A. and A.N. were apprehended first following a sting operation.

“An informant alerted us that U.A. possessed a gigantic quantity of pills in a container that he intended to deliver to him [the informant]. The two were arrested following a sting operation. During questioning, U.A. claimed that he had met A.N. in Syria in October 2014 and agreed with him that he would store the consignment in a warehouse in Dubai. He claimed that after the pipes were released from the port, he stored them in Fujairah for a month and then moved them to Dubai,” said the major.

According to prosecution records, U.A. was accused of importing the banned substance while A.N. and A.S. were said to have aided and abetted him.

Advocate Al Beloushi contended before the appeal court: “My client finalised the required procedures pertaining to the delivery of the consignment … and thereafter he had nothing to do with the shipment or its content. Drug enforcement officers failed to produce any evidence or proof that connects A.S. to case. He did not commit any wrongdoing.”

Sunday’s ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.