Court backs female drug mule’s penalty

Hamza M. Sengendo, Staff Reporter

DUBAI: A woman who arrived in Dubai with around 4kg of drugs has failed to convince a court to overturn a 10-year-jail term and Dhs50, 000 fine penalty. The Asian employee, 21, was intercepted at the Dubai International Airport on Dec.3. She had six plastic rolls wrapped with duct tape stuffed with a dried herb that turned out to be marijuana weighing 3, 859.8 grammes.

The Dubai Criminal Court’s jury sentenced her to ten years in jail and slapped her with a Dhs50, 000 fine after which she will be deported.

She denied anything to do with the contraband and sought to challenge the ruling.

“A friend tasked me with delivering a consignment. Had I been aware of its contents, I would not have accepted. I am as student. My future would be destroyed,” she argued. The Appeals Court has rejected her plea.

A female Emirati Dubai Customs inspector narrated that she was on duty in Terminal-3 when a male colleague tasked her with checking the woman’s bag manually after a baggage scanner showed suspicious lumps inside.

“I asked the woman whether she had anything she would like to declare. She said no. I took her with her bag to the inspection area. On checking inside the bag I came across a black rubber sheet under which were six rolls.

“They had been placed in corners within the bag. I opened one and landed on a piece of a dried herb.

“I suspected it and questioned her. She told me she received the bag from a woman in India to deliver it to a person.

“She contended she did not know what the bag contained. However, she said she accepted to deliver it with the prospect of getting a cash reward,” explained the inspector during prosecution investigations.

The Emirati colleague testified that he was in the baggage inspection section when he suspected lumps in the corners of the woman’s bag. A forensic lab report confirmed the herb was marijuana.