Two sentenced to death over 18 kg of hashish at Dibba crossing
The Dibba Criminal Court sentenced an Emirati and an Iranian in absentia to death in May 2012 over the smuggling of 18 kg of hashish and 20,000 tramadol tablets through the Dibba Al-Hisn border checkpoint. In August the Khorfakkan Court of Appeal upheld the Iranian's death sentence and commuted the Emirati's to life imprisonment.
The Dibba Criminal Court sentenced an Emirati, identified as W.A., and an Iranian, identified as H.A., to death after a five-man gang was caught planning to bring narcotics through the Dibba Al-Hisn land border checkpoint.[1]H.A. was sentenced in absentia.[1]Two accomplices, S.M. and A.A., received ten years each plus a Dh20,000 fine, and a fifth gang member, M.A., received four years.[1]The gang was arrested with 18 kg of hashish and 20,000 tramadol tablets.[1][2]
Appeal
The Khorfakkan Court of Appeal upheld the death sentence against the Iranian, H.A., fined him Dh50,000 and ordered the drug haul confiscated.[2]It commuted the Emirati’s death sentence, identifying him as W.S., to life imprisonment for smuggling, with four more years for possessing and consuming narcotics.[2]The court acquitted a third accused, M.M., of smuggling but jailed him for four years for drug consumption, and cleared S.M. and A.A. of possessing and using drugs, overturning their ten-year terms and fines.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Both opened reports cite Khaleej Times reporting, so no second outlet confirms the details.
A January 2012 report headed the arrests as four men while the May account describes a gang of five charged; this report follows the five-defendant account.
The exact date of the appeal ruling is not stated; 11 August 2012 is the publication date of the report.
The 20,000 tramadol tablets are not a cannabis figure and are recorded only in the text.
No photograph of the defendants or the seized drugs with a recoverable direct image address was found in the opened sources.
Abu Dhabi's federal appeal court upheld a three-month use sentence and a trafficking acquittal for a man caught collecting hashish in Al Nahda, Sharjah. His co-defendant was sentenced in absentia to life over 1,091.1 grams of cannabis-linked drugs.
Abu Dhabi's Court of Appeal overturned a life sentence for possessing cannabis and psychotropic substances with intent to traffic and reclassified the offence as possession for personal use. The court found no evidence of promotion, negotiation or delivery, and said the investigation did not explain why police had concluded he was trading.
Dubai's criminal court sentenced a 35-year-old Bangladeshi man to life in prison, 25 years under UAE law, for trafficking cannabis after police found 193.13 grams in his flat and WhatsApp messages about sales. He had been caught in a sting in Al Nahda after a Sudanese buyer led investigators to him.
The United Arab Emirates pardoned Fidaa Kiwan, an Arab-Israeli photographer arrested in Dubai in April 2021, and she flew home to Israel on 26 March 2023. Prosecutors said she was found with 500 grams of cannabis and 50 grams of cocaine; her first sentence was death, later reduced to life on appeal.