72-year-old man gets life sentence for drug dealing in Dubai

Dubai: A 72-year-old man will serve the rest of his life in jail for peddling 700 grams of heroin for $1200 (Dh4,400) to finance his heart surgery.

The ruling passed by the Court of First Instance has become irrevocable because neither he nor the public prosecution appealed against the sentence passed in November.

Public Prosecution investigations revealed that the man admitted to police that he was planning to deliver the heroin he got from Pakistan to a person in Dubai in return for $1,200 which he would use to pay for his heart surgery.

The court handed the 72-year-old Pakistani visitor, identified as Mian Nasser Ali Hussain Mian, a life sentence. He used to come regularly to Dubai to distribute the magazine he used to work for back home in Pakistan as a journalist.

He was arrested in March 2009 for bringing heroin into the country in his briefcase through Abu Dhabi Airport. Hussain Mian was arrested in Dubai a few days after he entered the country when the anti-narcotics department received a tipoff that the old man had heroin and he would hand it to a person.

Public Prosecution investigations uncovered that the man was supposed to meet an undercover policeman at a coffee shop in Dubai to hand him the heroin. Later, the man decided to meet the undercover policeman at a five star hotel in Dubai where he was arrested with the heroin.

Husain Mian who is being detained at Dubai Central jail since he was sentenced in November claims that he is not guilty. "I am an old man and a father of three children and a grandfather. I will never deal in drugs," he told Gulf News.

"I am a regular visitor to the UAE as I work for a magazine in Pakistan which we distribute here," he said.

Hussain Mian said his wife is old and is on a wheelchair.

"I have not told my children about my case. Only my elder son knows about the case," he said. Hussain Mian said he is too old to deal in drugs.