Customs' search process is breach of rights - lawyer

Dubai: A lawyer has criticised Customs inspectors who often breach travellers' rights by searching them "just because they look fatigued", a court heard yesterday.

"Every voyager would eventually seem exhausted and pale after hours of travelling, but this should not necessarily make him a drug suspect. When Customs inspectors randomly suspect passengers who look fatigued and have them and their luggage searched, then this is considered a breach of their rights," the lawyer of an Egyptian drug suspect told the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.

The Public Prosecution had charged the Egyptian national, identified as H.H., with possessing 1.3 grams of hashish with the intent of personal use.

The court heard that the defendant was caught at Dubai International Airport after he finished shopping with his fiancée and future-mother-in-law at the Duty Free. The suspect was to get married in Dubai.

When he reached the Customs desk, an inspector ordered that his luggage be searched. No drugs were found in his luggage.

His lawyer told presiding judge Mahmoud Al Sharshabi that the inspector insisted on searching the defendant "just because he was looking exhausted".

Suspect

"The hashish was in his shirt pocket. Just the fact that the drug was found in his possession does not mean that he committed a crime because the law enforcement procedures have to be implemented legitimately. As a matter of fact, every passenger then becomes a drug suspect just by looking fatigued," defended the lawyer.

The court heard that the inspector's act "is considered a breach of privacy".

A verdict will be heard later this month.