ABU DHABI // Defence lawyers for two men charged with cocaine trafficking argued that the defendants should be acquitted because police did not follow correct procedures in arresting them. MK and HA, both from Tanzania, appeared in the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance charged with trafficking more than one kilogram of cocaine into the country on May 12. They are also charged with possession and consumption of the drug.
They were caught in a police trap after the Abu Dhabi Criminal Department was tipped that the two defendants were "running a network of drug trafficking", prosecutors said. A CID officer, according to court documents, posed as a customer and the men were arrested after selling the drug, which was carried in a suitcase. Prosecutors say MK confessed to the police he had brought the drug into the country and took drugs himself, but he told the court last week he only delivered them. HA confessed to the police he possessed and trafficked the drug, prosecutors say. But HA denied this in the court.
The two defence lawyers said yesterday the police sting that caught their clients was flawed and unauthorised. According to UAE law, an arrest made without a clearance from the Public Prosecution is considered invalid, and any evidence based on that arrest is not admissible in court. A confession by defendants is separate and can alternatively be used for conviction. The public prosecution clearance, seen by The National, permitted the police to arrest HA in his room at a hotel in Abu Dhabi with every person involved with him. Only one raid was authorised, and it was to be made within 24 hours, the clearance said. The clearance was signed at 2.45pm in Khalifa City A; the raid was made at 4pm on the same day, May 13, according to court documents.
Lawyers argued that police could not possibly have been given clearance at Khalifa City A, returned to the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, where a signature from the Public Prosecution office was needed, set up cameras inside the hotel and then made the arrest all within 1hr 15mins. The lawyers also argued that prosecutors gave clearance to the police to make the raid in a certain room in a certain hotel, but the raid was made in a different hotel at a different room number. "This shows both the investigation and the clearance were flawed, and, therefore, the arrest and the inspection should be annulled," MK's lawyer said.
@Email:hhassan@thenational.ae
