DUBAI // Prosecutors have lost their appeal against the acquittal of an illiterate housewife who was charged with importing and possessing poppy seeds.
The defence lawyer of 33-year-old Indian A P told appeal court judges that she arrived with her husband and children after visiting family at home and she had brought the banned seeds to use as spices.
“She could not be that silly to carry the drugs in a bag in her hands,” said lawyer Saeed Al Ghilani, as he showed the judges the food packaging the seeds were carried in.
Those seeds are used in cooking, he explained and provided judges with a copy of a cooking book used in Indian schools in the UAE, which includes poppy seeds in many recipes.
The woman was arrested in August 17 last year for possession of 255 grammes of seeds and acquitted in November.
On Sunday, Dubai Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal.
salamir@thenational.ae
Tomb%20Raider%20I%E2%80%93III%20Remastered
%3Cp%3EDeveloper%3A%20Aspyr%0D%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Aspyr%0D%3Cbr%3EConsole%3A%20Nintendo%20Switch%2C%20PlayStation%204%26amp%3B5%2C%20PC%20and%20Xbox%20series%20X%2FS%0D%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Napoleon
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Ridley%20Scott%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Joaquin%20Phoenix%2C%20Vanessa%20Kirby%2C%20Tahar%20Rahim%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%202%2F5%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
