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Policeman locked up for taking bribe, smuggling drugs to prisoner

A Court of First Instance bench, presided by Judge Hamad Abdel Latif Abdel Jawad, ordered the policeman to pay a fine of Dh3,700.

The 29-year-old Emirati prisoner was also sentenced to spend an additional year in jail for offering the bribe to the policeman.

A Pakistani driver, who is accused of criminal complicity in the bribery and facilitating the use of drugs by the prisoner, was also given one-year imprisonment to be followed by deportation.

The verdict is subject to appeal within 15 days.

According to the prosecution’s arraignment sheet, the policeman, based at the Penitentiary and Reformative Establishments, collected a bribe of Dh3,700 to get drugs to the prisoner in his solitary confinement cell in July 2010.

An Emirati police major said that they wanted to catch the policeman red-handed when they learnt that he had been smuggling drugs to the prisoner. In his statement, the major said that the policeman had supplied drugs to the prisoner one week before.

After obtaining a warrant from the Public Prosecution, they arrested him early in the morning that day. The defendant admitted that he had a deal with the prisoner to get drugs into the latter’s cell for money. He said he needed the money because he had financial problems.

He picked up the drugs — a packet of cigarettes containing white pills and two black pieces — from the Pakistani driver, who is an accomplice, in a petrol station upon the prisoner’s request. The policeman collected Dh2,000 prior to the delivery of drugs and Dh1,700 later through money exchange transfers.

The policeman admitted during interrogation that he was to get Dh10,000 in total from the prisoner for his services.

mary@khaleejtimes.com