Dubai amphetamine sellers get jail terms reduced on appeal

DUBAI // Six men who were sentenced to life in jail for possessing more than 30 kilograms of amphetamines to sell got their sentences reduced at Dubai Court of Appeal on Sunday.

Five defendants will now serve three years each, while the sixth with serve five years in prison, in addition to each being fined Dh50,000.

The Syrian men, who all denied charges against them last October, will be deported after completing their sentences.

One confessed to an additional charge of consuming drugs, while another denied assaulting police officers on May 2 last year.

An Emirati anti-narcotics officer told prosecutors that he was part of the team assigned to take the gang into custody.

“The arrest took place in Nad Al Hamar between 7pm and 8pm. I was ordered to check a parked car, inside which I saw two plastic bags where the drugs were found,” he said.

Two of the men arrived and headed to the car. “They pretended to be checking and fixing it, after which one of them got in and drove away but we stopped and arrested him.”

The officer added that one man resisted arrest, biting the finger of a policeman and grabbing another in the groin.

Police said that, during questioning, the men had confessed and shown officers where the drugs were hidden.

It was not revealed why the sentences were reduced.