‘Illegal dealer’ tells Abu Dhabi court he was set up by undercover cop

ABU DHABI // A man accused of selling electric cattle prods to an undercover police officer without a licence said he was not dealing in the devices and just happened to buy them six months earlier from a Chinese market.

The defendant was also accused of driving a car without a licence and using another person’s labour card.

M, an expatriate Arab, told the criminal court on Tuesday that the labour card belonged to his cousin, who had rented the car he was in when he was arrested.

“Police did not find the card in my possession, they found it in the car itself — my cousin must have left it there,” he said.

As for the drivers’ licence, M insisted that his friend, the second defendant, and not him was the one driving the car.

“Didn’t you send an ad saying you have three electric prods for sale?” asked the judge.

“No, I received a broadcast message on BlackBerry Messenger asking if anyone had electric prods for sale,” he said.

The accused said he replied to the message, telling the person, who happened to be an undercover CID agent, that he was not a dealer but he bought three electric cattle prods from a Chinese market six months earlier.

“I told him, ‘you can check them out if you wan them’,” M added.

The case was adjourned until January 17 for the second defendant to attend.

hdajani@thenational.ae