Worker fails in appeal bid over 10-year drug smuggling sentence

Pakistani had said he knew nothing of the marijuana stashed in his bag and he thought it was gifts to be delivered to people in Dubai.

DUBAI // A worker who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for bringing 3.6 kilograms of marijuana in his luggage into Dubai will have to see out his sentence.

The Bangladeshi, 35, was convicted of a drug possession charge. He had denied it in both criminal and appeal courts, claiming that he knew nothing about the drugs and that he had been given gifts by people to be delivered to family in Dubai.

“A man back home brought it to me in wraps and I didn’t see what was inside it,” the defendant said in court.

He was stopped at Dubai International Airport on November 11 last year after his flight arrived from Pakistan.

A Customs inspector scanned the luggage and found a suspicious bulge. He said that once the bag was opened, the defendant became tense.

“We found marijuana in 54 wraps in the bottom of his bag. It was wrapped like it was candy,” said the inspector.

The worker was fined Dh50,000 and will be deported after the appeal court upheld his sentence.