Successful appeal by rare wood ‘importer’

Pakistani was charged over the illegal import of 600 endangered red sandalwood logs.

DUBAI // The Court of Appeal upheld a ruling in favour of a 45-year-old driver who was acquitted of charges of importing 600 logs of endangered red sandalwood.

Pakistani A B denied the charge in criminal and appeal courts and said that someone else had imported the wood and his role was only to get it through customs.

He was charged with importing an endangered type of wood without obtaining proper approvals and of forging the documents of the wood shipment, as well as smuggling it into the country illegally to evade paying customs taxes.

The court was told that the documents of the shipment failed to mention that it included the endangered wood logs, stating only that it was a shipment of onions.

The head of sea shipping operations at Jebel Ali Port, M G, 42, said that a tip-off about a container was received saying that it had wood that was banned from importing, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora agreement.

An X-ray showed that onion bags were placed around the outside of the container, with the middle area filled with the sandalwood. M G said attempts to contact the owner of the shipment had failed.

He contacted the Ministry of Environment to lodge an official complaint with police. Investigations then led to the defendant, who used the shipment documents to get the container beyond customs.

The wood was confiscated by court order.