DUBAI // An Italian woman who was pregnant when she was caught smuggling drugs will serve her 10-year jail term.
S R, 25, who has since given birth, will remain with her child behind bars after the Dubai Court of Appeal verdict.
She was arrested at Dubai International Airport on March 13 with 6.8 kilos of heroin in her luggage.
Authorities were tipped off that the woman, who was in the country on a visitor visa, intended to smuggle the drugs out of the UAE. Her destination was not stated in records.
Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics unit found out the hotel she was staying at in Sharjah and checked CCTV footage, which showed her meeting with a Pakistani man and taking the drugs from him. “I followed the defendant and identified her through a photograph. Then, I approached her as she was trying to check in luggage and told her that we were from the police and we had an arrest warrant for her,” said Emirati policeman H A.
Records showed the Pakistani man was arrested by Sharjah Police. He told officers he had been hired by a man in the UAE to deliver the drugs to S R.
He also said he was in possession of a second quantity of drugs, which he was to hand to another European who would take it out of the country.
When the mother appeared before Dubai Criminal Court in August last year, she was holding her newborn child.
On November 11, she was sentenced to 10 years, to be followed by deportation, and was fined Dh50,000 and the appeal court has now upheld the sentence.
Children who are born to jailed women remain with their mother for two years. If at that point, no family are available in the UAE to take the child, with the mother’s consent, it will remain with her in prison.
The mother’s embassy is also contacted with a view to sending the child to the home country.
salamir@thenational.ae
