Man not guilty of providing friend with fatal dose of heroin

Emirati defendant admits to panicking when his friend overdosed in his own car, so he ran off, leaving the body in the car in a sandy area of Dubai.

DUBAI // An unemployed man accused of providing his friend with the heroin that killed him was on Monday found not guilty of facilitating drug consumption.

Dubai Criminal Court heard earlier this month that Emirati H K supplied his compatriot H A with the fatal dose.

The 41-year-old was charged with facilitating consumption of drugs and with consuming drugs himself.

Prosecutors said he took morphine, codeine and other substances, all of which he confessed to in court. H K denied that he had given H A the dose that killed him.

“He possessed heroin, not I. He had already taken drugs when he came to see me that day,” H K told the judges.

A police investigation found that on October 1 H A, whose age was not given, met the defendant and asked him for drugs.

The pair were in H A’s car and H K said he refused to give him drugs because he noticed he was already intoxicated.

The defendant said that after H A took the heroin, he panicked when his friend overdosed and left him in his car in a sandy area of Al Muhaisnah.

When H A was reported missing by his family, an investigation found H K to be the last person to see him alive. He was arrested a week later.

A forensics report showed that the defendant’s blood contained traces of drugs.

Police captain A L said H K confessed to buying drugs from a dealer in Oman for Dh500 per gram.

Lt A A said the defendant originally gave police several false testimonies about H A’s whereabouts.

He finally confessed to what happened that day and took officers to the car where his friend’s body was found in the passenger seat.

H K as acquitted of facilitating drug consumption but found guilty of consuming drugs. He was sentenced to four years in jail.