Defendant fined Dh100,000; scanner at airport detected marijuana
Dubai: A jobless woman who was caught smuggling 3.8kg of marijuana in her luggage when she arrived at the Dubai International Airport has been jailed for 10 years.
Law enforcement officers at the airport stopped the 31-year-old Malian woman as the scanning device detected two pieces of marijuana in her luggage in August.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the woman of smuggling and possessing drugs and fined her Dh100,000 although she had pleaded not guilty. Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said in court on Wednesday that the Malian accused will be deported after serving her punishment.
When questioned in court whether she was aware of the nature of the substance that she had been carrying, the defendant muttered before the presiding judge and cried before saying ‘no’.
She contended before presiding judge Al Shamsi: “Someone gave me the substance at the airport and told me that his sister would pick it up from me at the airport. I did not know what it was. I did not know that it was a banned substance. I just carried it.”
She said she did not take any money to carry the substance to Dubai.
An airport customs officer testified that the defendant was taken into custody once the scanning device revealed that she was carrying a banned substance in her luggage.
“Upon confronting her with the findings, the woman claimed that the seized substances did not belong to her,” the officer testified to prosecutors.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
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