Dubai: Brit with 0.003g cannabis on shoe sole => 4 years prison

[BSD]

That's another medieval dictatorship straight out of some horror movie I will never visit in this life time.

"BBC

Tourists warned of UAE drug laws

Travellers to the United Arab Emirates are being warned about its severe drug laws which have seen dozens detained for apparently minor offences.
Fair Trials International said arrests were being made over tiny quantities of drugs and over-the-counter medicines.

British tourist Keith Brown was sentenced to four years in prison after Dubai customs officers found a 0.003g trace of cannabis stuck to his shoe.

Fair Trials, a legal charity, said it has seen a steep rise in such cases.

Golden beaches

Possession of painkillers like codeine and some cold and flu medication could result in a mandatory four-year prison sentence, Fair Trials International said.

In one of the most extreme cases, it reported a man being held after poppy seeds from a bread roll were found on his clothes.

In recent years, chic hotels, skyscrapers and golden beaches have turned Dubai and Abu Dhabi into popular tourist destinations.

Businesses too have flocked to the UAE, which promises a high standard of living because of its oil wealth.

However, while it is considered one of the most liberal countries in the Gulf, the Muslim country's drugs laws are severe.

Last year, 59 Britons were arrested in the UAE on drugs-related charges, according to the Foreign Office.

Catherine Wolthuizen, chief executive of Fair Trials International, said customs authorities were using highly sensitive new equipment to conduct thorough searches on travellers.

"So many people now travel to Dubai and, as we're seeing, many have no idea what risks they're taking or their vulnerability to this very strict approach," she said.

"If they find any amount - no matter how minute - it will be enough to attract a mandatory four-year prison sentence.

"What many travellers may not realise is that they can be deemed to be in possession of such banned substances if they can be detected in their urine or bloodstream, or even in tiny, trace amounts on their person."

Jet-lag tablets

Keith Brown and his wife had been on their way from London to Ethiopia when they were stopped and searched at Dubai airport.

At first customs officers found nothing, but then a roll-up cigarette was spotted caught in the tread of his shoe.

The 43-year-old, from Middlesex, was charged with possession of 0.003g of cannabis and was sentenced to four years in prison.

British resident Cat Le-Huy was arrested in Dubai for carrying Melatonin jet-lag tablets, which are sold over the counter in the US and Dubai.

Mr Le-Huy told BBC News he was forced to sign a document in Arabic and was refused a translator.

He said once the tablets were proved to be Melatonin, police took what he described as dirt from his bag and said they were now testing it to see if it was cannabis.

Speaking from inside the prison, he said he knew nothing of any drugs in his bag.

"I suppose there's a sense of disbelief more than anything else. I miss my friends and family back in London and I'm also aware of the other stress this is causing to friends and family.

"As far as my welfare, I'm being treated relatively well and I have to go through the system and whatever path that takes, I'll just have to deal with it."

Bread roll

Aside from illegal substances, travellers have also been held for possession of prescription drugs.

Tracy Wilkinson was held in custody for eight weeks before customs officers accepted the codeine she was carrying had been prescribed by her doctor for back pains.

Meanwhile, a Swiss national is serving a four-year jail term after three poppy seeds from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow airport were found on his clothes.

Fair Trials International has published a full list of banned substances on its website.

The Foreign Office is advising all travellers carrying any prescription drugs to take a doctor's letter detailing exactly why they need the medicine and the exact dose.

The UAE Embassy in London said it would not comment at this stage."
BBC NEWS | UK | Tourists warned of UAE drug laws


"Some recent cases handled by Fair Trials International:

Keith Andrew Brown
43 years old from Middlesex. Arrested on 17 September 2007 at Dubai airport, enroute to London from Ethiopia. He and his wife were stopped and searched at the airport and nothing was found. Then the stub of a roll-up cigarette was seen on the sole of his shoe. He was charged with possession of 0.003g of cannabis and was this month sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment. He is waiting for an opportunity to seek clemency.

Robert Dalton, 25 from Kent
Robert travelled to Dubai on 13 November 2007 for a holiday after finishing his economics degree. He was stopped and searched at the airport and arrested after Customs officers alleged they found 0.03g of cannabis in his pockets. He is currently on trial and if convicted, will mostly likely receive a 4 year prison sentence.

20-year old man from West Yorkshire
Arrested at Dubai airport on 16 January 2008 while travelling back to the UK from Pakistan. Currently standing trial in Dubai after Customs officers alleged they found 0.02g cannabis in his pocket.

London man, in his 40s
Arrested on 7 May 2007 at Dubai airport on his honeymoon. Customs officials found 2g of cannabis in the pocket of a pair of shorts in his suitcase. He had forgotten it was there. He was sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment but was granted amnesty in Ramadan and released in October 2007.

33 year-old London man
Was arrested at Dubai airport on 14 May 2007 after travelling to UAE on business. Customs officials found 2g of cannabis in his pocket. He had forgotten it was there. He was sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment, but granted clemency and released in October 2007.

Tracy Wilkinson, 45 of West Sussex
Arrested at Dubai airport in 2005 for possession of codeine, a common pain relief medication, which she had been using to ease chronic back pain. She was held in custody for 8 weeks before officials accepted proof from her doctor of its use for prescribed medical purposes only.

Other reported cases

A Swiss national currently serving 4 years after 3 poppy seeds were found on his clothes by customs officials at Dubai airport. He had bought and eaten a bread roll at Heathrow before flying to UAE.

19 French nationals have been arrested in the past 18 months for possession of banned substances.

In June 2007, a 24 year-old Italian man was sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment after 0.01g of cannabis was found in his jacket pocket."

Fair Trials International: News : Charity issues urgent warning to all travellers to UAE after Briton is imprisoned for 4 years

 

[the blades]

That's another medieval dictatorship straight out of some horror movie I will never visit in this life time.

I think you're being harsh, Markus - haven't you heard about the shopping?:cheesy:

Seriously, I'd rather put my balls in a vice than visit that over-heated shopping center.


UTB

 

[BSD]

Seriously, I'd rather put my balls in a vice than visit that over-heated shopping center.


UTB

Yup.



Btw, just to clarify, for me, this is nothing to do with Arabs, it's to do with system.

There are many other countries in this world I won't be visiting any time soon that are for example primarily "Christian", at least according to their own understanding even if others don't share that view.

To me it's nothing to do with race or religion, it's only about freedom, democracy, civil rights, common sense and tolerance.

Gimme those, and I'll come visit no matter where.

But without that, I'll stick to the greener pastures this planet has to offer.

 

[anley]

They should have all stuck it up their jacksies, preferably in a condom of course otherwise don't offer me a toke on the joint

 

[the blades]

They should have all stuck it up their jacksies, preferably in a condom of course otherwise don't offer me a toke on the joint

ahhh, the scent of bourneville boulevard - unmistakeable!

UTB

 

[the blades]

To me it's nothing to do with race or religion, it's only about freedom, democracy, civil rights, common sense and tolerance.

Gimme those, and I'll come visit no matter where.

mee too, fella.

UTB

 

[the blades]

double post!

 

[grantx]

Markus,

We know what is one of the greatest affronts to democracy and decency, don't we? Ironically, in our democracies, it cannot be expressed without legal implications.

Grant.

 

[BSD]

Haha, nice ones, guys.



You know what's really strange, Dubai portrays itself as this really liberal place but has in reality totally lost all sense of perspective.

On the other hand Saudi Arabia is generally seen as the tough guy in that part of the world cracking down on everyone and their sister, YET you probably won't see more drinking (of alcohol, lol), going on in any other part of the world amongst the expat community than there, including those there without diplomatic status.

I mean, of course the Saudis know what's going on, yet they don't care.

The allegedly heavy handed Saudis demonstrating tolerance.

In allegedly liberal Dubai you get jailed for 4 years if you've got some prescription codein on ya.

I mean, sheesh, what is the problem, do they think some innoccent lady is gonna get high on the stuff and start a coup against the Sheikh ?

If she were to take over she'd probably demonstrate more tolerance, perspective and far sight than him, that's for sure.

Wonder if we drum up sufficient support with a view to making her the new Sheikha-for-life she'd reward us with some suitable appointments, say senior ambassadorships in attractive places ?

All we need to do to get her installed is smuggle sufficient mercenaries in, and get em high enough on codein to do the job.

Bloody marvelous !

 

[BSD]

Btw, jokes about coups aside, one thing I can fully understand is that if some educated UAE / Saudi citizen etc reads us Westerners talking like this about his rulers how they could very easily get sick to the stomach, and very understandably at that, I myself am pretty fed up with the fact that we are supporting these medieval dictatorships that are robbing their own countries blind while talking about democracy.

What a joke.

Those countries immense wealth belongs to nobody but those countries citizens, and we hypocrites in the West prop up those corrupt dictators and thieves.

No wonder the extremists don't have any recruiting problems in the face of such bigotry.

Just imagine how you would feel as an educated Saudi, seeing one of those countries thousands of Princes zip past you with immunity albeit not commensurate driving skills, who will never have to work a single day of his life, enjoying privileges and wealth beyond belief, a ruling clan in other words that is robbing your very own country of a very large portion of its assets, and you have foreign troops on your soil propping those dictators and robbers up.

That is counterproductive BS in very plain terms.

 

[Trader333]

Those countries immense wealth belongs to nobody but those countries citizens, and we hypocrites in the West prop up those corrupt dictators and thieves.

Is it any different here ? 90% of the wealth is owned by 10% of the population.


Paul

 

[BSD]

Good point Paul.

But I think that if on top of your normal economy, where you have fairer and less fair distributions of generated wealth among the most developed nations, if on top of that your country has the tremendous luck of winning life's lottery and hitting an amazing jackpot, then those proceeds that aren't the result of work or genius or productivity or new industries etc, then that chance money should be shared amongst the citizens, or, far more wisely, invested for the future.

Sort of like what Norway does with it's tremendous oil wealth:

The Government Pension Fund of Norway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contrast that with what happens in Saudi et al, where the ruling clan steals most of the oil wealth, where every lowly Prince of the 7000 they have gets an annual stipend of USD 250 000,-, which results in an amount that is still peanuts compared with the way the top dogs of the clan hemorrhage money like it grows on trees.

From 2000 this, but still a relevant insight into the way that place works:

"...The FT also says that oil export receipts for 2000 amounted to $72 billion, while the government reported oil receipts of $57 billion in the budget. The missing $15 billion is channeled to the state oil agency, Saudi Aramco, and of course the ruling Saud family, which uses it to fund the estimated 7,000 members of the royal family. The King's summer vacation alone costs $150 million, or about 0.2% of Saudi Arabia's oil revenues. To put this into context, the planned increase in the US defense budget for 2003 is $48 billion, or about two-thirds of Saudi oil revenues...."
DILACERATOR: A glimpse into the Saudi economy

 

[arabianights]

I dread to think what they would find on my shoe. Disregarding the self evident fact that an adult should be able to choose what to put in their body and so our western drug prohibition is fundamentally unjust, it is the case that most of these countries are not ready for civilised society, primarily but not exclusively because of their religion. There's currently at least one Saudi woman on death row for witchcraft! What can we do about this stupidity? The only answers I see are cultural relativism and cultural imperialism and we know where both of those lead...

 

[grantx]

Markus,

The ordinary citizen may well resent the privileged few, but the ordinary citizen is just as extreme, eg supporting Sharia law, vendettas, honour killings and oppression of women. Removal of the rulers won't change them.

Grant.

 

[BSD]

I dread to think what they would find on my shoe.

Markus,

The ordinary citizen may well resent the privileged few, but the ordinary citizen is just as extreme, eg supporting Sharia law, vendettas, honour killings and oppression of women. Removal of the rulers won't change them.

Grant.

Grant,

at the moment at least there is definitely lots going on that is wrong and not really attuned to the Golden Rule, absolutely no doubt about that at all.

But that is not to say that that is the way it is going to stay forever.

I mean think of the barbarism we had in Europe not that many centuries ago - or, if you will, even what happened in my country just a half century ago...

Historically, not much time has passed, yet the then is worlds apart from the now.

But one thing is rather clear I believe, and that is that one very important reason for the current now lies in the different treatment of Germany after the first world war vs the totally different treatment after the second WW: one led to Hitler, the other to the current peaceful democracy.

And that is ubiquitous action = reaction stuff that works the same all over the world, treat people badly and they will rally around even the craziest of leaders who is capable of uniting them and giving them an us-against-the-others feeling that restores their self-esteem.

The way you treat me is the way I'll treat you.

Of course there is a lot that is very wrong in many Arab societies today what with Sharia or the treatment of women etc etc that has nothing at all to do with us, but if on top of that their fragile confidence feels nothing but contempt from the West, then that most definitely is not something that will help improve things, that will only serve to make them even more dogged in their attempts to demonstrate their difference to us.

One doesn't change the world by judging or showing people you have no respect for them or telling them what to do, that only leads to resentment and actions that will oppose everything you stand for.

Tell a kid to not smoke and he'll smoke. Make drugs illegal and witness the biggest witchhunt and most enormous waste of money, time and resources the world has ever seen, with absolutely zero effect to show for it.

Show a kid you respect him by telling him it's his choice to smoke or not while being a cool role model, a cool example he looks up to, then chances are he'll follow his heroes example.

The only real leadership that ever manages to change or influence the future is leadership by example, is leadership by pull, not push marketing.

Having said that, even in this day and age, most countries and societies in the world are guilty of another of the most incredible atrocities imaginable, the animal industry, concentration camps where animals that like pigs are more intelligent than dogs, are grown under cruel, disgusting circumstances before they are taken away to their incredibly painful, barbaric ends.

Not very enlightened or humane, that, either.

But then one of the major reasons we are here is to learn and grow I believe, and one couldn't learn or grow if the world were not bipolar, if every good did not have it's bad on the other side of the coin.

 

[yacarob1]

Blair and Bush have probably killed more Muslims with their illegal, extremist, atrocious wars than Sharia Law ever will.

The Bush administration and its hangers-on are also corrupt dictators and thieves.

They just masquerade under the umbrella of something they label as democracy.

As for people who visit the Middle East, they would do well to acquaint themselves with local laws, customs and beliefs. If they don't like it, keep out.....if they are sensible and street-wise then it is unlikely that they will have a problem.

Those who do have problems with drugs in Dubai are either guilty, ignorant or stupid.

A few innocents may get unlucky but that also happens in sh1t hot, super-civilised, democratic paradises like the UK and USA.

( Did anyone note the touch of sarcasm there ? )

How many times over the years have the UK police framed disadvantaged people for serious crimes where they have been too incompetent to apprehend the real offenders ?

God, the hypocrisy !!!!!!!!!

 

[BSD]

Blair and Bush have probably killed more Muslims with their illegal, extremist, atrocious wars than Sharia Law ever will.

The Bush administration and its hangers-on are also corrupt dictators and thieves.

Absolutely true.

Iraq was and is the biggest war atrocity and crime of the new millenium.

1,2 million people dead, and God knows how many more mutilated because of a corrupt, counterproductive, terror promoting oil war.

"Alan Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m"

 

[zigglewigler]

Arriving at LAX is no pleasant experience. You have a British passport yet are treated like some scum infidel because you ain't with the American program, you give any lip you'll get your a**e flipped for some latex probing.

You ain't welcome in the US dude, and you ain't welcome in the Dunes with all your decadent modern ways either! Now if you bring your women covered in the front hallway rug, and you give your women a good regular beating as you would be entitled in Muslimworld (the right of guardians, fathers, husbands and male cousins etc, to beat their women is enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution, well done Bush/Blair) and you generally agree with the non-Secularist subservient viewpoint, then come on down, they've got faceless malls, charmless hotels, and even indoor snow skiing!

So you spend your money with the world's worst polluting individuals with the backwards medieval mental midgetness that we spent along time eradicating in the Church dominated Europe.

Yes Americans and Europeans ain't no angels, but as for this new Costa del Akim for the moronic Brits and their lust for the footballer's tacky high rise lifestyle, count me out.

It's bad enough I have to support these so called 'Nations' when I fill up the car.

Injustices will continue if you turn the other way. If you happily buy a flat out there knowing full well that democracy doesn't exist even in the limited form we have in the west, then you are complicit in supporting oppression.

Almost as bad as Tony binning a court case to protect arms sales to undesirables.

As for getting caught with traces of Infidel Juice in your veins, well respect their 'culture', a culture of tyranny is still a culture of sorts.

Although if you are going to be executed the Arab sword properly dealt would be better than the Yanky modern way. Almost as good as the guillotine.

Maybe they aren't so backwards afterall.

Rant over. Nice way to clear the cobwebs out before a trading day.:innocent:

 

[BSD]

Clearing the cobwebs is always good mate



Lots of ways to do that:

Have a nice weekend all

 

[yacarob1]

If you happily buy a flat out there knowing full well that democracy doesn't exist even in the limited form we have in the west, then you are complicit in supporting oppression.

Aren't people who vote for George Bush, Tony Blair, Hillary Clitoris etc in a so called democratic election also complicit in supporting the direct oppression and brutalisation of anyone who disagrees with these self appointed Gods of the Universe ?

I would say that buying a flat in Dubai is on a higher moral level than voting for the Almighty Bush.

( I mean George, not Hillary )