ABU DHABI // A forensic expert has refuted claims by a German man charged with traffic-related offences that he had taken the drugs found in his bloodstream outside the country. KR and JA, both Germans, and MA, a Russian, appeared before the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance last week charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and failing to follow traffic rules. JA was additionally charged with consumption of hashish.
The three men caused a traffic accident after they left a club in a car in Abu Dhabi on May 21, the court was told. They were taken to a police station for urine and blood tests. The tests showed KR, who was driving, and MA had consumed alcohol and JA had consumed hashish. Only MA is free on bail. In last week's hearing, the judge heard testimony from JA and a forensics expert. JA, who is of Moroccan descent, told the court he had actually taken the drug outside the country, two days before arriving in Abu Dhabi. He said he came to the UAE at the beginning of May to visit the other defendants. He smoked two joints of hashish in Germany on April 28, he told the court.
He said he started taking drugs four years ago in Germany and smoked two joints a day. He argued that because he was a drug addict, the drug would stay in his blood for a longer time than it would in a non-user. But an expert from the forensics unit at the Judicial Department told the judge the man took the drug inside the country. He said the level of the drug found in JA's blood meant that if he were smoking three to six joints a day, the drug must have been taken during the prior two weeks.
"If he took the drug for the first time, then this level means he took the drug in the past three days," the expert told the court. Chief Justice Saeed Abdul Baseer asked the expert: "So in this case, did he take the drug inside the country or outside it?" The expert testified he took the drug inside the country. The verdict is scheduled for Tuesday. @Email:hhassan@thenational.ae