01 October 2007

Dubai jails Briton for possessing ecstasy

A court in the Gulf tourist hot-spot of Dubai has sentenced a Briton to four years in prison for possessing ecstasy, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.
The 39-year-old man, who was not named, was caught by a customs official at Dubai International Airport with ecstasy pills weighing 1.71 grams (0.06 ounces), the English-language Gulf News said.
It said he would be deported after serving his sentence.
The Western-oriented emirate of Dubai, one of seven that make up the United Arab Emirates, is a leisure hub in the oil-rich Gulf and draws millions of visitors every year.

But the UAE imposes tough penalties for all drug-related offenses -- four years is the usual sentence for possession while trafficking carries the death penalty.
The Gulf News reported in June that a British tourist was jailed for four years in Dubai for possession of 0.07 grams (a little over two-thousandths of an ounce) of marijuana.
Dubai is highly popular with Britons, one million of whom visited the city state in 2005. About 100,000 British nationals live in Dubai, and 20,000 more reside in other parts of the UAE. Source

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