Duo get life sentence for dealing drugs in UAE

Abu Dhabi - The case involved six other people who were also charged with smuggling and peddling drugs.

A 28-year-old British woman was handed a life sentence for smuggling manufactured cannabis from the UK with intent of promoting the drugs in the UAE.
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of First Instance pronounced the sentence to the Brit after she was found guilty of smuggling and dealing in drugs.
Her accomplice, a 24-year-old Emirati man, was also given a life sentence for aiding and abetting the British woman by providing her with cash and information and directing her to sources in the UK where she could buy the drugs. The man was also sentenced to another two years for possessing and using drugs.
The case involved six other people who were also charged with smuggling and peddling drugs.
Official court records stated that on April 8, 2016, the police arrested the eight defendants after it received information that they dealt with drugs.
During interrogation by the police and public prosecution, the British woman, the main defendant in the case, admitted to charges of smuggling and dealing with drugs. She said she had smuggled drugs from the UK through Abu Dhabi airport four times before she was arrested. The woman noted that she was working with the Emirati defendant whom she was introduced to through her husband.
Prosecutors said that all defendants had admitted to charges against them during interrogations but they denied the accusations when they appeared in court. The court, however, convicted them based on evidence presented by prosecutors.
Three other defendants, including a 26-year-old British national, a 21-year-old Jordanian, and a 25-year-old Somali woman were given two years in jail each for possessing and using narcotics.
The trio was, however, cleared of possessing drugs for purposes of sell.
Two British nationals, both aged 27, also charged in the case, were cleared of all the allegations after court found them innocent.
Awatif Mohammed from Al Rowad Advocates, who represented one of the acquitted Brits, had argued that the evidence submitted by prosecutors against her client was baseless and that it didn't in any way prove that her client had any connection to the drugs because the confiscated stuff was found in possession of three other defendants in their hotel room and not in her client's.
"My client, who stayed in the same hotel, was merely visiting the other defendants in their hotel room when police raided the place and arrested him. The man is innocent," said Awatif.
"How could it be possible that the arresting officer in his testimony said that he kept my client under surveillance for a month when she arrived in the country two days before the arrest happened," she asked in court.

• Abu Dhabi