(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) The Fujairah Criminal Court of First Instance on Wednesday sentenced a jail cook to 10-year imprisonment and a Dh50,000 fine for selling drugs to inmates.
The incident came to light when a prisoner was caught by jail guards while he was in possession of hashish. On interrogation, he said he got it from the jail's cook against payment of cash.
The court also ordered the inmate and his cellmate to four years each in jail but acquitted another cellmate for lack of evidence.
The incident happened in February this year when the Central Prison's police received information that an Asian cook of the jail, S.B, was selling narcotics to the inmates. The suspected cook was put under close surveillance. One day, while he was serving meals as usual to the prisoners, the guards searched an inmate's tray and found a plastic roll with some substance hidden inside. The forensic laboratory test showed that the substance was hashish.
When interrogated, he confessed that he got the roll from a person to hand it over to an inmate, A.A. Based on this information, A.A was detained and on searching his cell, the police seized a packet of hashish. He admitted that he got the substance from the cook.
Two of his cellmates, A.K and A.S, were also detained for not reporting the crime.
They were referred to the Public Prosecution, which accused the cook of promoting, possessing and selling drugs to prisoners inside the Punitive and Correctional Institution and A.A of consuming and possessing narcotics. A.K and A.S were charged with not reporting the illegal activities even when they knew them.
The court bench presided by Judge Saeed Abdullah Massoud found three of them guilty, and ordered the cook to be locked up for 10 years and imposed a fine of Dh50,000 on him. It also ordered his deportation after serving his jail term.
The court also sentenced A.A. to four years in jail for possessing drugs. The court fined A.K Dh1,000 for covering up the crime and not reporting it, but cleared A.S of the same charges for lack of evidence.
