Carpenter poses as doctor, runs clinic in Sharjah flat

Sharjah - The 49-year-old defendant was charged with possessing narcotics for trafficking.

A Korean man - who posed as a doctor but turned out to be a carpenter - was arrested for running an illegal clinic in his room at Al Saja Industrial area in Sharjah.
The criminal investigation department (CID) was tipped off about a man practicing medicine without an authorised licence. The CID swooped on the flat and nabbed the Korean. A fake licence was recovered from the room. The police also found herbs and other substances from the place. After being tested in the laboratory, it was established that the seized substances contained opium, psychotropic diazepam and tramadol - which are all drugs.
The 49-year-old defendant was charged with possessing narcotics for trafficking and is facing trial in the Sharjah Criminal Court.
Pleading not guilty, the man said he was a doctor and that he did not know that possessing drugs to treat patients was a crime in the UAE. He said he prescribed the medicines for treating colds and diarrhoea.
The inspection officer said in August last year, they caught the accused and found that he did not have a licence to practice the medical profession. The criminal laboratory confirmed that the materials seized from the defendant's room were anaesthetic opium and two types of psychotropic substances, he pointed out. The police later discovered that the Korean man was a carpenter by profession.