DUBAI // A 37-year-old trader who admitted trying to smuggle 583 marijuana cigarettes but said they were for his personal use was sentenced to life in prison by a Dubai court this morning.
PR, from Uganda, told the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance in May he did not intend to sell the drug. There was a total of 427 grams of marijuana, records said.
PR was also convicted of consuming a banned substance.
According to his testimony, PR said he had smoked 60 of the cigarettes on top of his building in Al Hamriyah area.
The drug was found when police searched a vehicle left at a petrol station for more than an hour.
salamir@thenational.ae
