Dubai: A visitor is facing ten years in jail after a court convicted him on Monday of smuggling 123 grammes of poppy seeds from his hometown in Pakistan.
The Dubai Court of First Instance also ordered the 44-year-old visitor to pay a fine of Dh50,000 after Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad ruled that he was guilty of smuggling and possessing drugs.
The accused, identified as M.R., pleaded guilty when he appeared in court.
Presiding Judge Abdul Jawad also ordered that the accused be deported after completing his jail term.
The arraignment sheet said M.R. had attempted to smuggle into Dubai 123 grammes of poppy seeds — a banned substance under UAE laws — and with possessing the substance.
When questioned by Dubai Police and prosecutors, M.R. admitted that customs inspectors discovered the poppy seeds hidden in his luggage, police said. He also confessed that he had smuggled the illegal substance from his homeland.
Testimony
An Emirati first inspector at Dubai Customs testified that the crime was detected at Dubai International Airport's Terminal 2.
"I suspected the defendant when he arrived at the arrivals terminal. I accompanied him to a search room … when I searched him personally, I did not find anything. Then I searched his luggage and found a black nylon bag which contained six plastic transparent sacks. The nylon sacks contained grass-like substance which seemed to be poppy seeds. Immediately, he alleged that the confiscated substances did not belong to him … he claimed that he brought them from Pakistan to hand them to another person," the first inspector said during prosecution questioning.
"I am guilty… someone in my hometown gave me the substances and asked me to deliver it to another person in the UAE," claimed M.R. when he appeared in court.
The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
