AIR HOSTESS IS CLEARED OF EMIRATES DRUG CHARGE

A BRITISH air hostess accused of being part of a gang that smuggled
drugs from Europe to sell in the United Arab Emirates was cleared by a
court in Dubai yesterday after spending 17 months in custody.

Katherine Jenkins, 31, of Neath, south Wales, was arrested in 2000
when police found 50 grams of cocaine in her flat in Dubai. She faced
up to 10 years jail if convicted.

Two British co-defendants convicted of drug possession were given jail
sentences.

Miss Jenkins, who claimed the drug belonged to another person, punched
the air with joy as a court translator announced her acquittal.

Her father, Vivian, 53, died while she was in jail and she was refused
permission by the Emirati authorities to attend his funeral in
November. It was her second trial as a previous one had ended without
a verdict.

After yesterday's acquittal she said: "I'm delighted. I'm also very
sad that my father wasn't here to share this with me. I now want to
get home to my family and friends, and get on with the rest of my life."

Her mother Alvine, 50, who was at home in Neath, said: "We are
delighted of course. We always knew that Katherine was innocent."

Miss Jenkins was freed from custody but was ordered to stay in the UAE
for 14 days pending any appeal by the prosecution.

Her father, a steelworker, who worked at Port Talbot, died of a heart
attack after overdosing on aspirin last November. An inquest, which
recorded a verdict of misadventure, was told he had been "subjected to
considerable worry" due to his daughter's detention. This was
compounded by the deaths of colleagues in a blast furnace fire shortly
before his death.

Miss Jenkins was detained and charged following the arrest of an
Australian, Heidi Deboer, who offered to sell cocaine to four
undercover police officers in a Dubai bar. She told police there were
drugs at Miss Jenkins's flat. Police discovered the cocaine in a roof
space.

Miss Jenkins, who was working for the Dubai-based Emirates airline,
told her trial she had panicked after finding the drugs in a cigarette
packet while tidying up her flat. She hid them because she didn't want
them in her flat.

Miss Jenkins said the cocaine must have belonged to Deboer, 25, who
had been the only person to visit her since returning from a work
flight to Frankfurt.

Deboer, who had received a royal pardon from a four-year prison
sentence for drugs offences three months before her arrest, was
yesterday sentenced to five years' imprisonment along with two Britons
who each received four years.

Stacy Simpson, from Manchester, and Daniel Maalouf, an economic
analyst, from London, both 29, were convicted of drug possession and
use.

The case against all the defendants began after police received a
tip-off that Maalouf took drugs. Police found a capsule containing
cocaine, a pipe and other drug-taking equipment in his flat.

Maalouf named Deboer as his supplier and the Australian, whose father
Bill works as a pilot for Dubai's ruling Maktoum family, was arrested
in a police sting operation. She claimed she was part of a British
drugs smuggling operation.

Officers then raided a hotel where Simpson, his Eastern European
girlfriend Anne Kidd, and another Briton, Anna Bartlett, 23, were
staying. Police said drugs were found hidden in their room.

Bartlett, from Southend, Essex, was jailed for life in May last year -
a sentence reduced to 10 years on appeal - after admitting smuggling
half a kilo of cocaine and some cannabis into the UAE.

She told her trial that Simpson offered her money to bring in the
drugs from Germany.

Kidd, 33, was also previously sentenced to life, reduced to 10 years
on appeal, for drug use and possession.