Picture for illustrative purposes only. ARCHIVE

An Asian drug trafficker has been spared the death penalty in the UAE after the Supreme Court overturned three previous death sentences, citing procedural errors. He has now been sentenced to life in prison instead. The man was originally convicted in Abu Dhabi after undercover officers caught him delivering a car trunk full of Captagon pills on behalf of an overseas trafficker. Investigators said he admitted to earning Dh5,000 per delivery and had completed several similar transactions. The trial court gave him the death sentence, a ruling upheld on appeal and by the Federal Supreme Court. However, the public prosecutor later petitioned for the case to be overturned, arguing that the judicial panel that heard the case was not the same panel that read the verdict—a breach of procedure. The Supreme Court agreed, invalidated the sentence, and ordered a retrial. During the new proceedings, the defendant denied the charges and challenged the search warrant, calling the intelligence “weak.” The court rejected his defense, finding that surveillance confirmed his involvement in trafficking. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which can go up to 25 years. The court also ordered his deportation after serving his term, and the drugs and tools seized in the operation were confiscated. ICA/Expat Media
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