the Khorfakkan Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s verdict

the Khorfakkan Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s verdict awarding capital punishment to an Iranian in absentia for smuggling 18kg of hashish and 20,000 tramadol tablets into the country. The court fined the Iranian, identified as H.A, Dh50,000 and ordered the confiscation of the drug haul.The court, however, modified the sentences against four other accused, all Emiratis, in the same case. It commuted the death penalty awarded to a UAE national, identified as W.S., to life imprisonment for smuggling the drugs into the country. However, he was given an additional four years in prison for possessing and consuming narcotics. The court acquitted the third accused, identified as M.M., also an Emirati, of drug smuggling but sentenced him also to four years in jail for possessing drugs for consumption. The court cleared two other Emiratis, identified as A.M. and S.M., of possessing and using narcotics and mind-altering drugs. The lower court had sentenced them to 10 years in jail plus a fine of Dh20,000 each on the same charges. According to the case, the five formed a gang to smuggle 18kg of hashish and 20,000 tramadol tablets into the country. In May this year, the Court of First Instance awarded W.S. and H.A. death penalty, the second one in absentia. The court also sentenced S.M and A.M to 10 years in jail plus Dh20,000 each in fine and M.M to four years in prison.