Dubai Appeals Court upheld a 10-year prison sentence

An African man brings 70 cocaine capsules in his gut to "treat his wife"

The statements of an African convict who brought 70 capsules packed with cocaine inside his guts through Dubai airport conflicted. He admitted before the customs inspector that he had hidden the drugs in his guts to be delivered to a person inside the country. Then he claimed in the evidence and prosecution investigations that he brought them inside him, but he did not know that they contained drugs. Then he stated before the Criminal Court that he brought drugs in this way to treat his wife who is in the country, after he learned that she was sick and needed her treatment.

After examining the case, the criminal court sentenced him to 10 years in prison and a fine of 50,000 dirhams, and the appeals court upheld the verdict.

In detail, the investigations of the Public Prosecution indicated that the accused was on his way to enter the country through Dubai airport, coming from his country, and the customs inspector suspected him at the checkpoint, so he stopped him and asked him for his passport, and asked him if he had any prohibited items, he denied, but the inspector was not reassured. So, he was shown to a viscera detector, and he detected foreign bodies, suspected to be narcotic substances.

When asked, the accused admitted that he had capsules in his stomach, containing cocaine, and that he brought them to be delivered to a person for $1,000. He referred him to the General Department for Drug Control, which in turn referred him to the hospital to empty his bowels, and then to the Public Prosecution, before which he renewed his confession.

The lawsuit papers stated that the accused decided in the evidence report that he had brought and obtained the capsules, but he did not know that they contained a narcotic substance.

For its part, the Criminal Court ruled out the intent to promote, and considered the incident to be bringing and obtaining drugs, and by asking the accused during the trial, he denied what was assigned to him, and decided that he had brought the capsules in his guts to treat his wife, knowing that she needed treatment.

Regarding the denial of the accused in the evidence report and during the trial, the court responded that confession in criminal matters is one of the means of proof in which the trial court has the absolute authority in its estimation, and it may take his confession at any stage of the case, even if he changes it, confirming its confidence in his recognition in the minutes of seizure and investigations The Public Prosecution Office said that he brought and acquired drugs to be delivered to another person in the country, a confession that came from a conscious will.

The court also relied on his confession as well, to exclude the accusation of bringing drugs with the intent of promoting, reassuring of his role in bringing them and possessing them to hand them over to another person, then ended up convicting him, and sentenced him to 10 years in prison and a fine of 50 thousand dirhams, then deportation.

In addition, the accused appealed the verdict before the Court of Appeal, and by asking him again during the appeal hearing, he decided that he had brought cocaine for his personal use.

After examining the case, the Court of Appeal concluded that the appealed judgment surrounded the case with the legal elements of the crime for which the accused was convicted, and provided compelling evidence against him that would lead to the order of the ruling on it derived from the confession of the accused and the testimony of the customs inspector The seizure report and the Public Prosecution’s investigations, and the contents of the forensic laboratory report regarding the examination of the seized material, which are evidence that leads to a ruling without arbitrariness and does not contradict the rule of reason and logic, so the court takes them and considers them as complementary reasons for its ruling.

Regarding the defendant’s defense request to reduce the sentence imposed by the Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeal considered that he is a person with a history of drug abuse, so it rejected the request, and decided to uphold the sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 50 thousand dirhams, and deportation.

• The court refused to commute the sentence for the accused because he has a criminal record.

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