"DUBAI (AFP) — A British man sentenced to four years in jail in the Gulf emirate of Dubai for having a tiny amount of cannabis stuck to his shoe has been pardoned, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Andrew Brown was released early from prison in the Western-orientated emirate which is a popular destination for British tourists, the English language 7Days reported, without stating how much of the jail term he served.
The 43-year-old was arrested in September at Dubai International Airport after customs officers found 0.003 grams (0.0001 ounces) of cannabis on the sole of one his shoes."
--more here
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9 comments:
Unless its a pardon from the Dubai ruler then no one can pardon him.
should NEVER have gone to court in the first place - makes the UAE a laughing stock
Have you seen a photo of this guy? He was obviously targetted (hey, Racially Profiled) for being a Rasta (using ganja is practically a pillar of that religion). And when they found nothing...well, how can you find nothing - when you're in a room at the airport where drugs are routinely found and any kind of stuff could have dropped on the floor and not been cleaned up. Especially a quantity smaller than a grain of sugar. I'm sure Sheikh Mohammed is fuming about this case: it really does make the UAE look like a moron of a country. I expect all those involved in this case (customs officers, cops, judges, Public Prosecution) will be given a hard time and possibly sacked, and yes, a change in the law is required. Anything smaller than half a spliff should be ignored, as should anything consumed while outside the legal jurisdiction of the UAE.
I say this as a concerned Westerner. You might argue that whatever happens is according to UAE law, and you might be right. But the point is that the UAE is not China or even Saudi Arabia. It is not strong enough, big enough, ugly enough to stand on its own and not worry about what outsiders think of it. It is very much dependant on foreigners visiting for holidays or even buying property and settling. Therefore it is crucial that these kinds of things do not happen. I'm all for a strict drugs policy, but it has to incorporate a little flexibility: Codeine for Tracy; three (three!) poppy seeds on somebody's jacket; dope smaller than a grain of sugar; crumbs of marijuana in someone's pocket. These things are not the end of the world, and to take away four years of someone's life for it is a crime in itself.
I too vehemently endorse that this episode shouldn't have seen the light of day.
Unless of course one enjoys the pleasure of being mocked & ridiculed.
One thing that gets me is that some people are such apologists. They respond to these ludicrous, criminal acts (that of the gov't, not the arrested) and repeat the oft heard refrain, "tourists should know the laws of the country they're entering." Laws that allow a person to get jailed for any period of time, much less 4 years, for a speck of anything on the bottom of their shoe are so incredulous that no one would ever believe them. I agree that these airport officials ought to be getting a real shakedown and they're the one's who ought to be doing 4 years in jail.
Common, b.d., indeed: "tourists should know the laws of the country they're entering."
Zero drug tolerance means zero - in terms of the law, which cannot be debated.
God forbid I step on a piece of bacon fallen out of a sandwich at Heathrow airport and get the rind stuck on my sole.
God forbid I step on a piece of bacon fallen out of a sandwich at Heathrow airport and get the rind stuck on my sole.
SD:
In your case, you'd be entitled to two consecutive stays at the Burj Al-Slammer. First, for religious violation and second for carrying an advanced substance.
I am sure that this isn't the whole story.
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