Father and sons must see out life prison term for selling poppy seeds, Dubai court rules

DUBAI // A grocery shop owner and his two sons who were sentenced to life behind bars for selling poppy seeds must see out their jail term, the court of appeal has ruled.

The Bangladeshis were jailed by the Dubai Criminal Court last February. Their sentences have been upheld by the appeals court.

The father, 68, and his sons, 28, and 33, as well as a 60-year-old compatriot and a shop worker, were convicted of possessing drugs with the intent to sell.

Police raided the grocery in Al Sabhka on September 20 last year and found more than four kilograms of poppy seeds hidden inside plastic bags.

“The father confessed and said he knew it was banned and that he instructed his sons to get rid of it but they did not,” said a 25-year-old anti-narcotics officer.

The father used to send his sons to collect the poppy seeds from an Indian man, but stopped selling them four months before his arrest after a neighbouring store owner was jailed for possessing 163kg of poppy seeds.

Prosecutors said all four men confessed to selling seeds but claimed they did not know they were banned.

In court last December, they all denied a charge of possessing drugs with intent to sell. However, they were found guilty and all sentenced to life in jail followed by deportation after serving their prison terms, which is set at 25 years.

The father and his sons appealed the court’s sentence but lost.