Dubai drug officers placed hashish in client's bag, lawyer claims
Suspect says hashish was planted in his laptop bag
Dubai: A lawyer has accused drug enforcement officers of using a woman to lure his client to Al Qusais where they unlawfully arrested him after planting hashish in his laptop bag.
The 41-year-old Egyptian company manager, M.A., denied possessing hashish for personal use before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
M.A.’s advocate, Saeed Al Gailani, argued before presiding judge Ali Attiyah Sa’ad that drug enforcement officers framed his client and used a woman to entice him to meet her behind the Al Bustan Shopping Centre.
“My client is a very clean and upright man. He is currently preparing for his doctorate degree. He has never used or seen any kind of drugs in his life. This is a fabricated case. Drug enforcement officers failed to carry out the law enforcement procedures properly… and they didn’t carry out any serious investigation. They used the woman as bait… when they searched my client’s car they didn’t find any drug. They planted that piece of hashish in his laptop bag. Then they took him to the police station where they granted him a month to frame a drug addict or bring them a drug case,” said Al Gailani.
The advocate argued that drug officers tried to strike a deal with M.A. and released him on February 14 and ordered him to frame someone in a drug case within a month otherwise they would refer him to the Public Prosecution.
Al Gailani said M.A. contacted him before the case was registered against him and told him that it was impossible for drug enforcement officers to set him up.
“When my client failed and refused to frame someone, they put him in detention and referred him to the prosecution on March 16. When prosecutors confronted my client, he said that the hashish piece that was seized with him during the bust was different than the one showed to him during questioning by drugs prosecution. We doubt that piece of hashish was the same. My client’s future is at stake and that hashish piece didn’t belong to him. It was fixed for him,” said Al Gailani.
The lawyer told the court that he only agreed to defend M.A. because he was on bail and trusted his claims that he was not a drug suspect.
“It is almost impossible for a drug suspect to be out on bail,” he said.
A verdict will be heard on May 27.
