ABU DHABI // A defendant at the Criminal Court queried why he was on trial for drugs charges, claiming he had already served two years in jail for the crime.
On Monday, H M, an Emirati, said he was arrested in October 2011 at a friend’s house in Dubai for taking drugs.
A month and a half later, police searched his house and found a small piece of hashish.
He was sentenced at the Dubai Criminal Court to four years in jail, before being released two-and-a-half years later on the first day of Ramadan.
“On my release day I was surprised to be told there was a case against me at Al Rashidiya police station,” he said.
He was told that there was another case pending from 2012 because his urine sample had tested positive for drugs.
He said: “I told them I was at the Central Prison at that time. How could I have consumed drugs and how could they have taken my urine sample?”
Prosecutors told him that the consumption charge dated back to 2011.
H M said: “I asked then what was I doing this whole time in prison? Wasn’t it for consuming and possessing drugs?”
After checking the case files, he discovered that he had been jailed only for possession of drugs. The consumption charge was separate.
“But I had already served time for consumption, so why must I face trial for the same charge again? Why didn’t they inform me that the two cases were separate?”
The prosector said the case related to five types of psychotropic pills he had allegedly consumed, including Tramadol.
“I presented a medical report previously to Dubai prosecutors from the Gulf Diagnostic Centre in 2011, which prescribed these pills for me,” said H M. “I suffered joint pain.”
The court said it will announce its decision later in the day.
hdajani@thenational.ae
