How even having drug traces in BLOOD is a crime in ultra-strict Dubai as Mia O’Brien jailed for life ‘for 50g coke find’
DUBAI’S ultra-strict drug laws have seen Brit law student Mia O’Brien banged up and facing 25 years in a brutal jail.
She was reportedly found with a 50g lump of cocaine back in October – worth around £2,500 in the UK – and is now caged in the Al-Awir prison, dubbed Dubai’s “Alcatraz”.
Mia O’Brien, 23, was sentenced to life in prison in Dubai[/caption]
The Merseyside woman was sentenced after a one-day trial in Arabic[/caption]
If convicted in the UK, Mia would likely have got a sentence of around two years, according to the Sentencing Council’s guidelines – though it’s impossible to say exactly.
In the Gulf State, however, she faces a quarter of a century.
This emphasises that the UAE’s rules are much tighter and the punishments far more severe – here’s why.
Dubai is part of the UAE, which takes a zero-tolerance approach to drugs.
The Arab nation’s super-strict rules are dictated by Shariah Law, which society follows over there.
Any quantity of illegal drugs found – even 0.01g – can result in prosecution.
In fact, you don’t even need to be found with drugs on you.
If your blood tests positive for traces drugs, then this counts as possession and can be prosecuted.
Being found with miniscule amounts can result in a minimum three months in prison and / or a fine of up to £20,000.
As the quantities get bigger, however, so do the punishments – and things get really serious if the police suspect you had intent to supply.
Life sentences, meaning 15-25 years behind bars, are common for possession of large quantities or selling drugs.
Supplying drugs of any kind carries a minimum sentence of five years and a fine of £10,000.
This applies to anyone “inciting, inducing or facilitating” drug use for another person – so you don’t even need to have bought and sold it.
If the drugs you supplied are considered to have caused serious harm, then the minimum sentence rockets to 10 years in prison and a whopping £40,000 fine.
In some cases, the death sentence is even metered out.
The Al-Awir prison is notorious for facing dozens of horror allegations of abuse, torture and rape from former inmates[/caption]
Law student Mia got ‘mixed up with the wrong so-called friends’ while at university, according to her mum[/caption]
As in Mia’s case, trials are usually conducted in Arabic – making it very difficult for tourists to defend themselves.
And miscarriages of justice, as Mia’s mum claims has happened, are tricky to overturn.
The system is stacked against defendants every step of the way.
In May, Sam Dorman, a 33‑year‑old British dad from Derbyshire, was sentenced to 40 years in Al‑Awir Central Prison after police found 0.5 g of cocaine on him and 28 g at his home.
Back in 2008, British tourist Keith Brown was jailed for four years over a speck of cannabis – smaller than a grain of sugar – which was found on his shoe.
In another notorious case, a man was even jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport.
Mia, from Huyton, Merseyside, was handed a 25 year prison sentence after she was found with the drugs which have a street value in the UK of £2,500.
Her family this week issued a plea for help saying she had “never done a bad thing in her life” and had made a “very stupid mistake”.
Her heartbroken mum Danielle McKenna, 46, has revealed new details about her lengthy jail term.
She revealed that Mia, 23, was caught with 50 grams of the Class A drug in the Middle East last October.
The huge amount of cocaine was found inside Mia’s apartment in “one big chunk”.
The Liverpool University law student was arrested alongside two other people – her friend and the friend’s boyfriend.
All three have been charged with drug dealing.
Mia was convicted by a judge after a one day hearing on July 25.
She was also fined a staggering £100,000 by the court before being sent to the hellish Dubai Central Prison, also known as Al-Awir.
The notorious lock-up has been dubbed the affluent city’s version of infamous jail Alcatraz.
“Mia feels she has destroyed her life as she wanted to be a lawyer or solicitor, ” Danielle told the Daily Mail.
“I speak to her but she can’t say too much on the phone.
“She’s just made a stupid mistake after going over to see a friend and her boyfriend in Dubai.”
Dubia’s hellhole jail
By Georgie English, foreign news reporter
ALLEGATIONS of electrocution torture, abuse and preventing medication for sick inmates at al-Awir prison have all been made in the past.
This is where Brit Mia O’Brien, 23, is reportedly being held.
Her mum, Danielle, said she has been locked up in a “central prison”.
The jail is used for both male and female convicts – though they are separated once they step through the chilling gates.
Women make up one of the four blocks inside the huge jail, according to the British Government website.
Horror stories from inmates who have previously been locked up and those from the families of Brits still trapped behind bars paint a disturbing picture of Al-Awir.
In 2012, Karl Williams was imprisoned for a year after police found drugs in the boot of his hire car.
He compared the Al-Awir jail to the “Dubai version of Alcatraz” during his sentence.
In his memoir, he recalled seeing inmates being stabbed to death in violent clashes that were not stopped by guards.
In a statement released by Williams, he said that his testicles had been electrocuted while he was interrogated by police.
“They pulled down my trousers, spread my legs and started to electrocute my testicles,” he wrote in the statement.
“It was unbelievably painful. I was so scared. I started to believe that I was going to die in that room.”
