DUBAI // A man and wife charged with possessing drugs to sell will spend a year in jail after being convicted by Dubai Criminal Court.
The Filipino couple denied the charges and claimed the small amount of methamphetamine was for their own use. They were arrested on May 24 after a tip-off to Dubai Police. The man had 1.7g of methamphetamine and the woman had 0.24g.
They were also charged with consuming drugs, which they confessed to.
“We were tipped that he was trying to sell drugs so we had him investigated and tracked him down to a location in Naif where we arrested him and found the drugs, and drug money in his Mercedes,” testified an Emirati police officer.
The officer added that the man said the cash was to be used to renew his car registration.” As for the drugs, he confessed to us that he had taken them from a man in Ajman in order to sell them,” said the 25-year-old officer.
Police went to the home of the man he said he bought the drugs from but no one was there. It was not mentioned how or where the woman was arrested.
They will be deported after serving their prison terms.
salamir@thenational.ae
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Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble
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National Editorial: Suleimani has been killed, now we must de-escalate
Mina Al Oraibi: Air strike casts a long shadow over the decade ahead
Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble
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'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae