'Drug dealing' Britons were treated well, Dubai court hears

Police officer tells court three British men who claim they were tortured after being arrested on suspicion of drug dealing were treated well.

DUBAI // Three Britons who claim they were tortured after being arrested on suspicion of drug dealing were treated well, a police officer said yesterday.

K?A and G?M, both 25, and S?K were detained in the Marina area on July 10 last year.

One of the arresting officers told the Criminal Court that police treated them with respect and denied claims they had been refused medication. One of the men suffers from asthma, another from diabetes.

“We provided them with the medications and treated them well,” said the officer.

When a lawyer for one of the men asked the officer why they were charged with drug dealing rather than drug use, he replied: “The amount we found with them suggested they possessed it to sell rather than use.”

The Britons have been charged with possessing synthetic cannabis, known as Spice, with the intention to sell. They denied the charge but admitted taking the drug, saying they did so before arriving in the UAE.

They were arrested after anti-narcotics officers acting on a tip-off stopped their car.

A search uncovered two plastic bags containing the drug under the front passenger’s seat and in the boot.

Another police officer, O?A, said that upon their arrest, all the men denied possessing the drug.

“They told me it belonged to another British man identified as F?D and that he was the one who placed it there,” said the officer.

Urine samples from each of the men showed traces of the drug.

The next hearing was scheduled for April 8.

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