Man sentenced to life for abusing drugs in Dubai

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld a verdict issued by the Dubai Criminal Court sentencing a Gulf citizen to life in prison and fining him Dhs500,000 for possessing 122 grams of heroin and various other narcotics.

The defendant was caught red handed inside his house in Nadd Al Hamar. 

The case dates back to April last year when the General Department of Anti-Narcotics at Dubai Police received a tip-off that the defendant was abusing narcotics and psychotropic substances and possessed a quantity of the same in his house in Nadd Al Hamar.

According to the official documents, a team of detectives conducted the necessary investigations and found that the tip-off was true.

After obtaining a search warrant from the Public Prosecution, the team arrested the defendant and searched his house and vehicle to find four plastic boxes containing 122 grams of materials suspected to be narcotics in his possession.

A policeman testified that the defendant admitted that the seized materials were narcotics that he possessed in order to use them.

The defendant was referred to the forensic lab and the results of the analysis showed that he abused various narcotic substances including heroin and crystal.

The court said the strict sentence issued against the defendant was based on the fact that he possessed narcotic substances, which are listed in the Narcotics Schedule and weigh more than 20 grams.