DUBAI // A pizza waiter who was found not guilty of possessing a small amount of crystal meth will now serve life in jail after an appeal court ruling was upheld.
Filipino waiter MM, 32, has now been found guilty of possessing 0.08 grams of methamphetamine with the intent to sell.
He had denied the charges against him at Dubai Criminal Court earlier this year and was acquitted from the charge related to dealing, though he was sentenced to a year in jail for consuming drugs.
Prosecutors appealed and won when the appeals court handed MM a life term and fined him Dh50,000.
The waiter appealed the conviction but on Monday the Court of Cassation upheld the life sentence.
“I did possess the drug but only for my own use,” he said in both the criminal and appeal courts.
His lawyer argued that law enforcement procedures were carried out unlawfully against MM and that the amount of the drug he had was too small to be for selling.
A tip-off had led police to set up a sting operation during which the defendant was arrested for agreeing to sell the drugs to a police informant for Dh1,000, they said.
salamir@thenational.ae
