Suspected smuggler cries foul over hashish found inside chicken

Egyptian claims claimed someone with a grudge against him set him up just before he returned to Abu Dhabi.

ABU DHABI // A garage owner has pleaded not guilty to smuggling hashish into the country inside a chicken. The Egyptian defendant, identified as KA, appeared before the Criminal Court of First Instance yesterday charged with possessing and importing 3.2 grams of hashish. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.

He told the court the drugs did not belong to him, and claimed someone with a "grudge" against him set him up just as he was returning from a two-month trip to Egypt to visit his wife and two sons. The day before his flight to Abu Dhabi, he said, the brother of one of his friends asked him to deliver a bag of food to his sibling in Abu Dhabi. KA said it was the first time he had met the man, whom he said was from another village.

"Someone who has a grudge against me must have set up the whole thing and then tipped off the police," he told the court, saying that a Customs inspector at the airport asked him specifically about the food bag. "It does not make sense that I would bring hashish inside meat with blood - how would I sell it?" he protested to Justice Saeed Abdul Baseer, the chief justice. When the judge suggested that perhaps KA planned to use the drugs himself, he answered: "I have never taken drugs in my life. I have been in this country for 15 years and I have never done anything wrong. I am a straight person. I would not bring this poison here.

He continued: "I have cars and a workshop and I am comfortable, alhamdulilla. This is not worth it anyway." KA's court-appointed lawyer did not attend the proceedings. The hearing was adjourned until July 25. [e-mail]