The UAE’s public prosecutor is demanding the death penalty for two Britons convicted of smuggling drugs into the Gulf state, reported the Gulf News on Thursday.
The UAE Appeals Court on Wednesday heard the prosecution and defense arguments against the life sentences handed down to Anne Maria Kidd and Anna Hamilton.
The court then adjourned the hearing until June 27, said the paper.
Appeals have been submitted by Britons Stacey Simpson, Kidd, Hamilton, Daniel Malouf and Lebanese national Abdul Hamid Ghazi Al Dandashi. The four Britons attended the court session, but the Lebanese national did not.
The Sharia Court sentenced Hamilton, 22, and Kidd, 32, to life in prison for their involvement in drug smuggling. Mallouf, 28, was given 10 years for trafficking. Dandashi, 25, received four years for possession.
The case of the 35-year-old who falsely identified himself as Simpson was referred by the Sharia Court to Dubai's Court of First Instance, along with those involving Katherine Jenkins, 29, an Emirates flight attendant from Wales, and Australian Heidi Daibour, 24.
According to the paper, the prosecutor is demanding the death penalty on the basis that UAE law has not been strictly implemented against them and that they should have been given death sentences.
The prosecutor also maintained that Jenkins, Simpson and Daibour should be sentenced by the courts of Ras Al Khaimah, not Dubai, because the smuggling operation started in Ras Al Khaimah.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Al Khamali, the lawyer for Anna Hamilton, said she was suffering from mental illness at the time of her arrest and that the police dictated her statement.
Moreover, a medical certificate from a government hospital said that she has suffered mental problems which required medical help and that she could not be held responsible for her statements or behavior.
Hamilton's unstable health was allegedly capitalized upon by the gang leader to smuggle the drugs to the UAE in return for several thousand dollars.
A senior official at the Ras Al Khaimah Medical District said that Hamilton had been undergoing intensive care since her arrest, the paper said – Albawaba.com
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