DUBAI // A drug addict who tried to save his friend from an overdose by cutting his leg to reduce the amount of heroin in his blood has been jailed for five years.
The Emirati defendant, 22, said he had been taking heroin with his friend, who overdosed.
He tried to save him by making a deep cut in his right leg to let some of the heroin out. The man later died from the overdose.
The defendant said he bathed his dead friend’s body before dressing him and placing him on the bed.
On February 28 this year, anti-narcotics officers acting on a tip-off arrested the defendant at his home in Al Hamriyah, Bur Dubai.
They found a hotel room key in his pocket and when they went to the room they found his friend’s body on the bed.
When asked where he got the drugs, he led officers to the home of another Emirati, in Al Khawaneej, on March 1. Police found heroin and 22 tablets of a controlled medicine there.
The addict pleaded not guilty to using drugs and facilitating consumption by his dead friend but was convicted by the Dubai Criminal Court. He was also fined Dh20,000.
The dealer, 24, was sentenced to four years in jail after being found guilty of using and possessing drugs.
salamir@thenational.ae
