24 year old pro footballer sentenced to 25 years over CBD in Dubai.
The UAE has arrested dozens of foreigners for ‘crimes’ like having a poppyseed on the bottom of one’s shoe, having prescription medicine, residual hashish from marijuana smoked abroad, a glass of wine on a plane and so on. Tourists and expats are at great risk of police set ups and sting operations. The FCDO has been asked to increase travel warnings to citizens.
A 24 year old semi-pro footballer and coach from Kensington, has been sentenced to a whopping 25 years after Dubai police discovered 4 small bottles of CBD oil left in his car by a friend he’d driven to the airport two weeks earlier. Billy Hood was forced to confess in Arabic after being pressured by CID officers. He’s been sentenced for trafficking, selling and possessing a few grams of CBD in the medieval justice system.
On Billy’s arrival at CID headquarters, the head officer insisted he explain the contents of the bottle, “To my knowledge, it is normal vape oil”. Officers processed the urine sample which returned negative. Billy was asked to sign a document in Arabic. He kindly asked for an English translation but the officer replied, laughingly, “If you do not sign, you will never leave CID”. Billy refused to sign so was sent back to a holding cell. Another two days passed and on the fourth day, he asked to speak to the arresting officer. He succumbed to the pressure and agreed to sign the document in Arabic, not knowing its content. “Forced and coerced confessions are commonplace in Dubai”, said Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, an expert witness who has confirmed the same to the English courts in extradition cases.
“Dubai police’s handling of drug cases has resulted in numerous unfair detentions of foreign nationals. We’ve seen people arrested and even convicted without evidence, often on the basis of a forced confession in Arabic or on the basis of third party witness testimony from incentivised informants”, said Ms Stirling, who represented Cat Le-Huey, Andy Neal, Artur Ligeska, Perry Coppins, Peter Clark and Derrin Crawford and Conor Clements, all of whom were unfairly detained in Dubai. “Drug convictions are prestigious for police, leading to promotions and kudos. Courts do not require substantial evidence to secure a conviction. They are happy to sentence people’s lives away based on third party hearsay or a forced confession. Foreigners find it next to impossible to achieve a fair hearing and false allegations are commonplace. Detained in Dubai was founded in 2008 when Cat Le-Huey was arrested for specs of dust at the bottom of his bag. He was eventually exonerated but I realised his predicament was not unusual and was asked by other victims to continue helping. Since then, we have helped in more than 15,000 cases of injustice.
“Although the CBD oil did not belong to Billy, it is legal in many countries including the UK where one can buy it at a local health food shop. It does not get you ‘high’ and in no way warrants this man’s life to be stolen from him.
“The UAE promotes itself as a glamorous ‘party place’ to foreigners with marketing designed to lure over investors, skilled labour and tourists. Celebrities are paid to market the country, ultimately masking the truth for money. People have been arrested for legal prescription medicine, for specs of dust or because of an association to someone, a false allegation, for having a glass of wine on a flight or trace elements of hashish consumed outside the country that are still present in the system. Then we have numerous foreigners arrested for cybercrime complaints like a Facebook message, WhatsApp or even a negative hotel review.
“These are not isolated incidents but repeat patterns and this is why Baroness Whitaker, Andy Slaughter and other MP’s have called on the foreign office to increase their travel warnings and even sanction the UAE over the abuse of Brits in detention. Lee Bradley Brown was killed in police custody and an inquest into his death has just been reopened. Albert Douglas was hospitalised in custody after being beaten by prison guards. The European parliament has just voted to boycott the Dubai Expo but what is Dominic Raab and the FCDO doing to protect citizens abroad?
“Billy Hood does not deserve to spend 25 years in a desert prison because his friend left some CBD oil in his company car. He has already spent a horrendous nine months in detention, an utterly frightening and stressful experience for him and his whole family. We appeal to Sheikh Mohammed and the government of Dubai to let Billy come home”.
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