TWO WOMEN SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR DRUG OFFENCES

The Ras Al Khaimah Sharia Court yesterday sentenced a 59-year-old British
woman and a Thai woman to life imprisonment (25 years in the UAE) followed
by deportation for drug offences.

A third accused, a UAE national, was given four years and a Dh10,000 fine,
said a senior court official. The three were found guilty of using,
possessing, and selling drugs.

A copy of the verdict, he added, was passed on to the Public Prosecution in
order to arrest the national who did not appear in court yesterday. He has
been out on bail since day one of the case. S.K., the British woman, was
arrested when she tried to sell a marijuana joint to the national suspect
last November.

The drug squad arrested both and seized the marijuana joint. The official
added that during the police investigation, S.K. cooperated completely with
the police. Five grammes of marijuana were seized from her briefcase while
the tests for drugs proved positive.

The Thai woman, B.W.J., in whose house the British woman was normally to be
found, was also arrested and a police search yielded 32 grammes of
marijuana. She also tested positive for drugs.

The Thai woman has insisted throughout that the drugs seized from her place
were meant for personal use and not for sale.

The Ras Al Khaimah Police and their counterpart in Dubai have stopped their
search for a man in Dubai named by S.K. as her source of drugs. The police
had not been able to trace him and there did not seem to be anyone with
that name.

S.K. had confessed to passing on a quantity of marijuana through the Thai
woman to pass on to the national suspect, who would, in turn, pass it on to
a friend of hers in Ras Al Khaimah. The national, A.M.I., denied the
Briton's claims. He had told the court earlier that he was only the
relative of the Thai woman's husband, and had only met the Briton twice.

The official noted that in his statement, A.M.I. stressed that he had a
relationship with the Thai woman, and had seen the British woman in her
house but had nothing to do with her.

He also admitted that he had been taking marijuana, but never hashish. He
also disclaimed any knowledge of drugs in the cigarette given to him by the
British woman.

However, he had no explanation for the British woman's claims that she had
passed drugs to the Thai woman to deliver to him.

The British woman, according to the official, confessed to the court that
she was on drugs and possessed five grammes of marijuana.

When the police arrested her and showed her the search warrant issued by
the Public Prosecution, she immediately confessed and guided the police to
the drugs which she kept in her briefcase. The official added that she
claimed she suffered from permanent headaches, and during questioning in
court, she said that she had been using marijuana as a painkiller.

She also claimed in court that she had not been selling the marijuana
cigarette to the national but was only sending it through him to one of her
friends. She added that he was the cousin of the national husband of the
Thai woman.

The official said that the three suspects have 14 days to appeal against
the ruling. If they miss this deadline, the verdicts will be final.