Dubai: A lawyer produced a cookbook in court on Tuesday while arguing that poppy seeds are used for cooking and not just for growing.

Seeking acquittal of his 29-year-old Indian client, who is accused of possessing poppy seeds for growing, advocate Saeed Al Gailani handed the cookbook to the Dubai Court of First Instance. “Here is a cookbook that teaches anyone who’s cooking, to put poppy seeds in the food. Poppy seeds are used like herbs or spices and it’s a very common ingredient in the Indian cuisine and Indian dishes ... it’s not just used as a drug, actually it becomes a drug after it is grown and that has not been my client’s intention. What he was caught carrying was not yet a drug.”

Prosecutors charged 29-year-old A.S. with smuggling and possessing 561 grams of poppy seeds with the intention to grow these after a Customs inspector apprehended him at the airport in December.

“I possessed the poppy seeds because they are used as herbs but I didn’t intend to grow or plant them,” the suspect said while pleading not guilty.

The Indian suspect claimed that he uses them as a medicine as he suffers from constant headaches and sometimes uses this in food.

“We are also providing the court with an official letter issued by the Indian Consulate in Dubai confirming that poppy seeds are famously used as a main ingredient in Indian cooking. Your Honour, in a recent similar case that I handled, the court acquitted a woman suspect of possessing poppy seeds because she possessed them for cooking purposes and not to grow them,” argued Al Gailani before he was interrupted by the presiding judge.

“Once the poppy seeds are put on fire [cooked] then they cannot be grown into drug substances,” exclaimed the judge.

The lawyer said: “My client did not have any criminal intention when he brought the material with him. Actually, he did not even know that it is against the law to possess this material … and that is being openly sold in the spice market in the UAE. He put them normally in his bag and he didn’t hide them in a secret pocket.”

Al Gailani asked the court to acquit his client and dismiss the case because law enforcement procedures were carried out improperly against the suspect.

“The law enforcement officer, who apprehended A.S., did not have a prosecutors’ warrant to search and arrest my client ... he just stopped him because he suspected him,” he concluded.

Records said the suspect was apprehended at Dubai International Airport’s arrival terminal after the poppy seeds were found in his luggage. The Customs inspector claimed to prosecutors: “Upon confronting the suspect with the seized materials, he claimed that he consumes them because they’re good for headaches. No drugs were found in his possession when he was searched personally.”

Last month, the Dubai Appeal Court confirmed the acquittal of an Indian housewife of possessing poppy seeds after her lawyer convinced the court that she brought them for cooking purposes.

Drugs prosecutors have asked for the implementation of the Anti-narcotic Law’s article 48, according to which a suspect who smuggles and possesses drugs for growing purposes, could face between 10-15 years in jail and/or a fine between Dh50,000 and Dh200,000.

A ruling will be heard on March 7.

 

Poppy seed

Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy, as defined on the internet.

Shaped like a kidney, poppy seeds are harvested from dried seed pods and are used, whole or ground, as an ingredient in many foods, and they are pressed to produce poppy seed oil.

Poppy seeds are less than a millimetre in length and have a pitted surface.

According to the UAE anti-narcotic law, poppy seeds are considered a banned substance [drug] and it is prohibited to smuggle and/or possess poppy seeds with the intent to grow them.