Man jailed for four years in Dubai for 0.003grammes of Cannabis

vorbis · 14-02-2008 10:00PM

not going to Dubai for my holidays. Bunch of nutjobs to have laws like that!

Overheal · 14-02-2008 10:36PM

Well I guess im never gonna visit that 6 star hotel then.

Terry · 14-02-2008 11:21PM

robinph wrote: »

With that kind of checking your are basically guaranteed to a four year sentence just from being stopped by the airport security as they will be able to find that kind of amount on everybody. They must have 100% conviction for everybody they don't like the look of passing through their airports.

I've made my views on that **** clear before, but I'd have been screwed if I had gone through that security check last week.
A friend swapped me some rolling tobacco for a few cigarette.
He wanted the cigarettes for making joints. He doesn't smoke regular cigarettes.
The guy who gave him the tobacco is a stoner and there was a small bit of hash in it.
I unintentionally got stoned last week.

Fair enough, I smelt it and stopped smoking, so I wasnt too stoned, but I did get a slight buzz.

rubadub · 14-02-2008 11:26PM

Terry wrote: »

Fair enough, I smelt it and stopped smoking, so I wasnt too stoned, but I did get a slight buzz.

Terry Clinton, I always knew you were a sly smoker, ye auld dog!;)

Dave! · 14-02-2008 11:28PM

Terry wrote: »

I've made my views on that **** clear before, but I'd have been screwed if I had gone through that security check last week.
A friend swapped me some rolling tobacco for a few cigarette.
He wanted the cigarettes for making joints. He doesn't smoke regular cigarettes.
The guy who gave him the tobacco is a stoner and there was a small bit of hash in it.
I unintentionally got stoned last week.
Fair enough, I smelt it and stopped smoking, so I wasnt too stoned, but I did get a slight buzz.

You're single-handedly propping up organised crime in Ireland and abroad. You make me sick.

Terry · 14-02-2008 11:42PM

rubadub wrote: »

Terry Clinton, I always knew you were a sly smoker, ye auld dog!;)

DaveMcG wrote: »

You're single-handedly propping up organised crime in Ireland and abroad. You make me sick.

I was smoking that **** when both of you were in nappies.

Dave! · 14-02-2008 11:49PM

scum

AircraftTechie · 14-02-2008 11:53PM

Jimmy Joe-Joe Junior Shabadoo wrote: »

the united states is holding several hundred people for no other reason than 'they looked arab and were holding a gun in a warzone' and probably torturing alot of people too... you see why rational, decent people are afraid of christians?

Rather have suspected Terrorists locked up if there was even a sniff of them doing anything Terrorist related.

Jimmy Joe-Joe Junior Shabadoo wrote: »

'they looked arab and were holding a gun in a warzone'

Remember Rhuhel Ahmed, one of the Tipton Three, Mr Ahmed was one of three young Britons who were kidnapped while attending a wedding in Pakistan, tortured, and sent to Guantanamo. But he was Arested in Afghanistan with a gun in his possession! Wedding in Pakistan? PLEASE. Oh hang on Ahmed confessed to visiting an Islamist training camp and also handled weapons and learned how to use an AK47.

AircraftTechie · 14-02-2008 11:59PM

rubadub wrote: »

Terry Clinton, I always knew you were a sly smoker, ye auld dog!;)

You almost seem proud of the above post, there is blood on your hands if you do drugs, everytime you do Illegal drugs your funding the gang violence on Irish streets, you make me sick.

rubadub · 15-02-2008 12:02AM

Terry wrote: »

I was smoking that **** when both of you were in nappies.

So it was last Saturday night?

damn, my secret fetish is out....

unclebill98 · 15-02-2008 12:13AM

Note to self...

Never fly from Amsterdam to Dubai.....

KLM do a service to Dubai, I wonder how many Dutch people have never returned...??

Seeing that all you have to do is walk into a jazz gig and what do you know....you smell of grass!!

Terry · 15-02-2008 12:48AM

AircraftTechie wrote: »

You almost seem proud of the above post, there is blood on your hands if you do drugs, everytime you do Illegal drugs your funding the gang violence on Irish streets, you make me sick.

Attack the post, not the poster.
This is your only warning.
You do not have free speech on this site.

DaveMcG, I know it was tongue in cheek, but don't do that again.
If I was to suggest that someone should go hunting instead of shooting on the foru you mod, then someone else calls me "Scum" for suggesting it, I would expect you to ban them.
I don't want precedents set here.
Thanks.

Dave! · 15-02-2008 10:53AM

I have no idea what that analogy means but okay.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 15-02-2008 11:21AM

AircraftTechie wrote: »

You almost seem proud of the above post, there is blood on your hands if you do drugs, everytime you do Illegal drugs your funding the gang violence on Irish streets, you make me sick.

every time you eat nestle or drink nescafe or coke, you stick your boot down harder on the neck of some poor brown child. But it's alright, brown children aren't as cute as good, decent white children.
You make me sick.

dlofnep · 15-02-2008 11:39AM

Serves him right! He shouldn't of been smuggling bacteria-sized nodges into Dubai! But on a serious note, this is just further distancing western and arab countries.. The Dubai authorities were out of order on this. It's an injustice. However, injustices have happened in all walks of life and all countries.

The Guildford Four and MaGuire Seven were imprisoned in Britain for doing absolutely nothing. The evidence was skewed and the authorities downright lied in order to convict them.

In the US, people are detained for looking the part. They have no right to trial.

So before we go waving the whole anti-muslim flag, let's have a bit of perspective.

BKtje · 15-02-2008 11:49AM

Spoke to a couple people i know who live in Dubai about it. They weren't surprised at all and said it they were probably just trying to "show off" to their superiors.

Obviously i doubt they know whether that they were or not but just thought i'd add their perspective.

Raekwon · 15-02-2008 01:53PM

biko wrote: »

Scratches Saudi from list of places to go, ever.

To sleepy - I think Saudi Arabia Sharia Law is considered to be very harsh, not moderate. Do you have links?

Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates not Saudi Arabia. The U.A.E. is alot more tolerant then Saudi, but based on this thread they are all a mad shower of b*stards over there in the middle east.

blackbelt · 15-02-2008 03:27PM

Fcuking stupid,

Get Amnesty International on their @$$ and see how they like it.

Seriously,if they are going to jail a man for having a very miniscule and invisible speck of cannabis residue on his shoe for four years then its time we started to slowly distance our relations with middle eastern countries and trade for absolute necessities such as oil/petrol.This just takes the Michael completely and until we demonstrate that western cultures and nations are not going to take such farcical sh1t,they'll never learn that we are A)different to them and B)come from a different culture where law is much different.I bet his wife and children are going through a terrible ordeal.You'd swear he tried to smuggle it into the country on purpose or was carrying ecstasy for sale but a speck of cannabis on his shoe and getting four years????.....absurd.

In fact,I'm very tempted to follow this story and get on to the embassy about this.Usually I wouldn't take such action or do anything but if it happened to any of our countrymen and women you'd be sure there'd be serious outrage.Why does this case bring back terrible memories of what happened poor Ken Bigley.Time to put the foot down on our middle eastern "friends" and say enough is enough.

For the previous statement made about brown children and Nescafe/Coke,get real will you.This man is not guilty of anything and his wife and kids are facing a terrible ordeal.If we want to go into this I could tell you that everytime you put on your runners that you are putting your boot harder down on the neck of an asian person in Taiwan or China or Singapore.Majority of people don't realistically think of these things when they consume products like that ffs.

Sleepy · 15-02-2008 03:33PM

biko wrote: »

To sleepy - I think Saudi Arabia Sharia Law is considered to be very harsh, not moderate. Do you have links?

Is Dubai not in the United Arab Emirates? I didn't think it was in Saudi Arabia. Who, afaik, are possibly the worst example of extremist governance outside of China. The UAE would be thought of as quite moderate by comparison.

irishconvert wrote: »

That comment is almost as stupid as the decision by the Dubai authorities.

Did I say I feared Islam? No, I did not. I merely asked a question in order to discover the attitudes of Irish followers of that religion to the actions of a state run by strict adherance to their religion and how many in the western world react to those actions.

Assuming from your name that you've converted to Islam, I apologise as I meant no offence. I'm a large believer in the axiom that there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers

Edot: sorry Raekwon, didn't realise you'd posted about Dubai before me. Though I knew my geography reasonably well!

irishconvert · 15-02-2008 03:51PM

Sleepy wrote: »

Did I say I feared Islam? No, I did not.

Ok, you asked "with behaviour like this from an Islamic country that's regarded as pretty moderate compared to the likes of Iran etc. can you see why so many westerners are starting to hear 'Muslim' as a 'scary' word?" I think that is nonsence. The real reason westerners are weary of Islam is that they are subject to anti-Islamic propaganda day after day on the likes of Sky News. There is not one day that goes by where there is not a mention of "Islamic Terrorism". These news organisations have an agenda where they try to divide and make people fearful of Islam. Why is it anytime a Muslim murders anybody that their religion is made the central focus, but when a Christian or Jew does the same, nothing is mentioned about their religion? Anytime an Iraqi is killed by the US/British army I don't hear stories of Christian attacks. Anytime the Israeli Army kill a Palestinian or Lebanese person I don't hear news stories of Jewish attacks.

Sleepy wrote: »

I merely asked a question in order to discover the attitudes of Irish followers of that religion to the actions of a state run by strict adherance to their religion and how many in the western world react to those actions.

Ask any Muslim in their right mind and they will tell you that the Dubai authorities went way over the top. I don't agree with it at all.

Sleepy wrote: »

Assuming from your name that you've converted to Islam, I apologise as I meant no offence.

No problem, no offence taken

irishconvert · 15-02-2008 03:57PM

blackbelt wrote: »

Fcuking stupid,

Get Amnesty International on their @$$ and see how they like it.

Seriously,if they are going to jail a man for having a very miniscule and invisible speck of cannabis residue on his shoe for four years then its time we started to slowly distance our relations with middle eastern countries and trade for absolute necessities such as oil/petrol.This just takes the Michael completely and until we demonstrate that western cultures and nations are not going to take such farcical sh1t,they'll never learn that we are A)different to them and B)come from a different culture where law is much different.I bet his wife and children are going through a terrible ordeal.You'd swear he tried to smuggle it into the country on purpose or was carrying ecstasy for sale but a speck of cannabis on his shoe and getting four years????.....absurd.

In fact,I'm very tempted to follow this story and get on to the embassy about this.Usually I wouldn't take such action or do anything but if it happened to any of our countrymen and women you'd be sure there'd be serious outrage.Why does this case bring back terrible memories of what happened poor Ken Bigley.Time to put the foot down on our middle eastern "friends" and say enough is enough.

Aaah gome on, get off your high horse will you. Do you think there are no injustices in the Western world? Ever hear of the Guildford Four, Birmingham six, Jean Charles de Menezes, Lotfi Raissi (Algerian pilot falsely imprisoned for training 9/11 attackers), guantanamo bay, retention flights, water boarding?

ejmaztec · 15-02-2008 04:18PM

irishconvert wrote: »

Why is it anytime a Muslim murders anybody that their religion is made the central focus, but when a Christian or Jew does the same, nothing is mentioned about their religion? Anytime an Iraqi is killed by the US/British army I don't hear stories of Christian attacks. Anytime the Israeli Army kill a Palestinian or Lebanese person I don't hear news stories of Jewish attacks.

I believe that both the US and British forces are multi-denominational, so "Christian" wouldn't be a true description.

I don't know anyone that wouldn't consider the Israeli army as Jewish.

FunkZ · 15-02-2008 04:19PM

The worst part is if I went there that could be me.

vorbis · 15-02-2008 04:40PM

without trying to trivialize the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six gross injustices, these were in a way mistakes by the police involved. They were wrongly convicted but the laws there were convicted under were reasonable. As in there were being charged for terrorist offenses which would be expected to carry a heavy sentence.

The guy is this case is being KNOWINGLY charged with possessing 3/100 of a gram of cocaine. Its completely farcical. This goes beyond police incompetence / corruption. It exposes an issue with the very lawmakers themselves. There isn't a miscarriage of justice per se. By UAE laws, this is perfectly legal which only makes the situation even worse.

Raekwon · 15-02-2008 04:43PM

Sleepy wrote: »

Edot: sorry Raekwon, didn't realise you'd posted about Dubai before me. Though I knew my geography reasonably well!

No problemo

blackbelt · 15-02-2008 05:10PM

Yes I'm aware of Guantanamo Bay,The Guildford 4 and The Birmingham 6.They were completely innocent and jailed for c20 years for a crime they did not commit.The Birmingham 6 is a more obvious and well known case.However,thats one injustice that was acknowledged as a downright crime against these people that they were jailed when it turned out they were innocent.Injustices happen all over the World.This thread which is concerned about this man in Dubai is an obvious and current injustice of middle eastern authority against a man who is so obviously innocent that it makes middle-eastern - western relations turn sou.

The degree of injustice in this case of the man in Dubai is a different kettle of fish.Could you imagine you are in Bangkok or Dubai and you have an invisible trace of cannabis on your shoe?This is nothing compared to murder or rape yet the authorities in Dubai/Middle East are making a mockery out of what is a purely inconsequential and farcical amount of a class c drug that has no intention of being used/consumed or sold.This guy faces 4 years because he might have picked up a grain of cannabis on his shoe from walking down a bus stairway or a lane or even a public building in the UK or the airport itself.You'd feel a complete injustice by being jailed for 4 years for inadvertently picking up what we perceive to be a harmless drug/herb that is so minuscule yet the authorities want to jail this guy as if he carried out a terrible crime.

Grow up Irishconvert,we know injustices happen all around the world but this episode is a travesty pure and simple and whether or not you've converted to another religion shouldn't blind you as to what is right and what is wrong.

I'm not so sure about the United Arab Emirates,but my grandfather spent some years in Saudi Arabia back in the 70s and 80s and he told me of his experiences over there such as watching public executions and maiming.Here we are in 2008 and what has changed over there...nothing.I hear if you litter or even spit on the ground in Singapore,you'd face a jail sentence at best and/or fine.We have fines for littering here in Ireland but you never hear of it being implemented or being an issue but spitting on the ground...come on.

I ask you the following

1) Was there obvious intent to smuggle a considerable portion of the drug for recreational use or sale?....I know what your answer will be to this.

2)Was the fact that it was a grain of cannabis on his shoe not an obvious indication that he picked it up unknowingly and hadn't realised as the portion of the drug was invisible?....Again I know what the answer will be.

3)Just because the aforementioned are examples of injustices that have happened,does it make what happened in this case any less important than it is?

Maybe the difference in the degree of crime is huge but this is pure nonsense that a man is jailed when its blatantly obvious he's innocent.Don't even try and justify that my reaction to this is OTT by citing past examples of what has happened.This is a more current issue and is something indicative that the state of legal and judicial affairs in the middle east is going too far as far as World amnesty is concerned.

irishconvert · 15-02-2008 05:59PM

Blackbelt, if you read through this thread you will see that I already said the authorities in Dubai were totally wrong to convict this man.

irishconvert · 15-02-2008 06:01PM

vorbis wrote: »

without trying to trivialize the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six gross injustices, these were in a way mistakes by the police involved. They were wrongly convicted but the laws there were convicted under were reasonable. As in there were being charged for terrorist offenses which would be expected to carry a heavy sentence.

Isn't it true that the police did realise some time after the Guildford four were imprisoned that they had innocent men in jail but left them there in order to save face? In the case of the Guildford four they also put a 14 year old in jail for 4 years and a 17 year old for 5 years. All were innocent.

Sleepy · 15-02-2008 06:27PM

irishconvert wrote: »

Ok, you asked "with behaviour like this from an Islamic country that's regarded as pretty moderate compared to the likes of Iran etc. can you see why so many westerners are starting to hear 'Muslim' as a 'scary' word?" I think that is nonsence.

Why? This attrocity was carried out in accordance with 'the will of Allah'. When this is how the act is professed, is it not natural for people to be scared by those that adhere to what, to them, is a relatively unknown religion?

I'm sure you'll argue that it is up to those that are scared by this to study Islam and realise that it's a religion that advocates peace etc. and to a point I'd agree with that. However, most people aren't interested in learning about other's religions. Personally, I looked at the basic tenets of the other major religions after calling hokum on the one I was born into but didn't find anything to convince me they were any less ridiculous. Had I not rejected my own faith, I'd have been extremely unlikely to look at others.

The real reason westerners are weary of Islam is that they are subject to anti-Islamic propaganda day after day on the likes of Sky News. There is not one day that goes by where there is not a mention of "Islamic Terrorism". These news organisations have an agenda where they try to divide and make people fearful of Islam.

Why? Who's guiding this hate campaign against Islam? The US and Britain? They're just in this for the oil and that's certainly not a religious thing.

IMHO, the US have interfered in things that were never their business in the middle east (and the British and French can accept blame for the creation of a state in another people's territory too). However, this is a political issue, not one of religion. I fail to see how any faith (Judaism included) has any ground to stand on when discussing territorial and national borders.

The fact is, it was followers of Islam who made this a religious issue by depicting their fight as a jihad.

Why is it anytime a Muslim murders anybody that their religion is made the central focus, but when a Christian or Jew does the same, nothing is mentioned about their religion? Anytime an Iraqi is killed by the US/British army I don't hear stories of Christian attacks. Anytime the Israeli Army kill a Palestinian or Lebanese person I don't hear news stories of Jewish attacks.

As ejmaztec, aside from the Israelis (who are clearly all Jewish), these are multi-denominational, *national* armies. It's quite different from the multinational, single-denominational terrorist attacks / "insurgency" (I hate that word) being seen from the other side of the "war on terror" (again another stupid word I don't know a more acceptable one for).

Ask any Muslim in their right mind and they will tell you that the Dubai authorities went way over the top. I don't agree with it at all.

Glad to hear it.

I think I may have inadvertantly hit upon the reason it's so hard for many people to isolate those carrying out terrorist attacks on the US, fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and carrying out human rights attrocities in so many 'Muslim' countries from their religion. They aren't standing up to be counted as nations but as followers of (what I perceive to be a perverted version of) Islam.

rubadub · 16-02-2008 02:19PM

vorbis wrote: »

without trying to trivialize the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six gross injustices, these were in a way mistakes by the police involved. They were wrongly convicted but the laws there were convicted under were reasonable. As in there were being charged for terrorist offenses which would be expected to carry a heavy sentence.

The guy is this case is being KNOWINGLY charged with possessing 3/100 of a gram of cocaine. Its completely farcical. This goes beyond police incompetence / corruption. It exposes an issue with the very lawmakers themselves. There isn't a miscarriage of justice per se. By UAE laws, this is perfectly legal which only makes the situation even worse.

Yes. All these injustices listed are incomparable. If you want a comparison It would be the equivalent of the UK having a strict anti-IRA law in place where anybody found humming a wolfe tones song would be imprisoned for 4 years. Or that the US would have in place a law so any guy with as much as the head of a matchstick stuck to his shoe would be imprisoned for 4 years, for possesion of explosives.
Some countires may have apparently over the top laws on their books, BUT they are not enforced, usually such laws are in place to stop loopholes being exploited. But even if you do get a rogue pedantic cop enforcing stupid laws it will usually have to go through several channels, superiors, judges etc. How all these Dubai authorities arrived at the conclusion that money would be well spent housing this guy for 4 years is bizarre.

irishconvert wrote: »

Isn't it true that the police did realise some time after the Guildford four were imprisoned that they had innocent men in jail but left them there in order to save face? In the case of the Guildford four they also put a 14 year old in jail for 4 years and a 17 year old for 5 years. All were innocent.

Talk about missing the point ENTIRELY!:eek:

Man jailed for four years in Dubai for 0.003grammes of Cannabis

Comments