Picture used for illustrative purposes.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld a verdict issued by the Court of First Instance sentencing an Arab to 10 years in jail to be followed by deportation and fining him Dhs100,000 after being convicted of bringing 12 electronic cigarette filters containing drugs and other psychotropic substances in a soapbox inside his suitcase.

The case dated back to September last year when a customs inspector at Dubai International Airport suspected the suitcase of an Arab passenger coming from a North American country.

The inspector stated that when he inquired from the passenger about the contents of the suitcase and whether he had any narcotic drugs, the suspect denied that he had any prohibited materials.

The inspector added that after passing the passenger’s suitcase through the x-ray baggage scanner, the soapbox was found to have an abnormal density. The suspect, however, denied that there were any narcotic drugs and consequently the seized items were transferred to the criminal lab. The airport police were informed accordingly and the suspect was arrested.

The criminal lab report stated that the seized materials included narcotic drugs of various types inside a plastic bag and oil for narcotic substances inside 12 electronic cigarette filters.

On interrogation, the accused denied the charge levelled to him and claimed that he was not aware of the presence of the narcotic substance inside his suitcase.

He later admitted that the drugs belonged to him and that he had put them inside his suitcase by mistake, pleading that the drugs were inside a shampoo bottle that he used in his home in the country he came from and that he was hiding them because his family was not aware that he was taking narcotic substances.

While he was packing his suitcase, he randomly inserted the shampoo that contained these substances into his suitcase, deny that he had any intention to bring it to the UAE.

According to the court, the narcotic drugs belonged to the defendant merely because they were found inside his suitcase even if the defendant pleaded that he was unaware of the presence of these drugs.