ABU DHABI // A musician found with hashish and Tramadol pills in his suitcase was today sentenced to four years in prison.
The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court heard that YM, an Egyptian, had arrived in the UAE to play in the band of the Egyptian singer and presidential hopeful Saad Al Sughayar for one day.
He previously claimed the drugs were in his suitcase "by mistake".
"I don't know how they ended up in my bag, the customs officer surprised me with them," he told the court during an earlier hearing, adding that he shares the tuxedo in which the drugs were found with his brother, who is a similar size.
However, the musician admitted using drugs in his home country. "You know how it is," he told Chief Justice Sayed Abdul Baseer, the head of the court.
"No. How would I know how it is?", replied the chief justice, "you are a big sinner".
The musician said he had a medical prescription for the Tramadol that he had been issued in Egypt but he did not know where it was.
"Someone was supposed to attend today and bring it, but I don't know what happened to it," he said, telling the judge: "If you can give me two days I'll bring it."
The musician said that he previously signed a confession only because the police told him that he would be immediately returned to Egypt if he did so. The date of his arrest was not announced in court.
hdajani@thenational.ae
