Nurse denies stealing medicine from hospital

ABU DHABI // A nurse working for a hospital said in court this morning the medicine she was charged with stealing was on its way to the rubbish bin.

JA, a nurse working for Khalifa Hospital, appeared today before the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance charged with stealing medicine from the hospital's pharmacy. The amount or nature of the medicine was not specified. 

The defendant's lawyer asked for acquittal because the charges implied that she illicitly obtained drugs possessed by the pharmacy, whereas the drugs she is accused of stealing had been returned by patients for humanitarian use.  

The lawyer said the defendant had converted to Islam and was known among her colleagues to be a good person. 

hhassan@thenational.ae