According to Gazeta.Ru, the second defendant in this case is a 20-year-old Russian citizen who worked as a saleswoman in a Dubai store. She did not have a license to trade pharmaceutical products, for which she received six months in prison. Under the country's laws, such crimes are followed by mandatory deportation and a ban on entry after serving a prison term and paying a large fine.
It is not yet known under what circumstances the Russians (their names are not disclosed) committed the crime and whether they will appeal the first-instance court decision to the court of cassation. The Russian Embassy in the UAE stated that they do not yet have any official information about the convicted Russians.
Since the 1990s, the UAE authorities have been intensively fighting against the illegal import of psychotropic and narcotic substances. In just under five years – from 1999 to September 2004 – more than 7,500 people were detained in the country on suspicion of crimes related to illegal transportation, storage, distribution, and use of drugs and potent medicines. About 19 tons of hashish, 431 kg of heroin, and 111 kg of opium were confiscated. These figures are cited in an article by Akhmyat Khasyanov, a senior researcher at the Research and Design Institute (NIPIOR). According to the scientist, 'the Arabian market has been particularly attractive for the sale of drugs and various psychotropic drugs in recent years.'
In the UAE, as early as 1995, a special law that came into force in January 1996 made drug smuggling punishable by death. Over the years, Sharia courts in the UAE have sentenced dozens of people to the highest penalty. However, the last execution in the country was carried out in the autumn of 1996. In subsequent years, it was replaced with life imprisonment for drug traffickers. In addition, convicted criminals are subject to large fines in the amount of tens of thousands of US dollars.
Kazim BAIBANOV.
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