DUBAI: A visitor who was convicted of carrying psychotropic drugs into the UAE has been jailed for seven years on appeal. Official court documents stated that the Asian man was arrested from one of the airports in the UAE after customs officers found out that he was illegally carrying drugs into the country.
The man who had arrived on a flight from an Asian country was hiding the psychotropic pills inside his bag. The Public Prosecution had accused the man of smuggling the psychotropic drugs into the UAE with a purpose of distributing the prescription-only medicines in the country.
Prosecutors charged him with smuggling drugs into the country with the intention of selling it. They also demanded that the Asian be punished in accordance with the provisions of the Islamic Shari’a and the federal anti-narcotic law.
Both the First Instance and Appeal courts sentenced the man to seven years in jail and fined him Dh50,000 after he was found guilty of smuggling drugs into the UAE.
The man appealed to the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi denying having knowledge about the drugs.
He said that he was just helping to bring the small bag that had drugs to someone in the UAE but he had no idea it contained the illegal medicines.
The judge however rejected his claims and maintained rulings by the lower courts.
The Asian will be deported after serving his jail sentence.
