Abu Dhabi: An Egyptian man accused of smuggling drugs into the country by hiding them in his shoes, claimed that the footwear did not belong to him, the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court heard on Sunday.
The 24 year-old defendant, S.S., told presiding Judge Saeed Abdul Bashir, head of the Criminal Court at the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, that he was unaware of the 44 Tramadol pills and stash of cannabis hidden in his shoes.
“How could you walk around in shoes with drugs hidden in them and not know about them or feel their presence?” asked Abdul Bashir.
The accused alleged that the shoes were his brother’s and that he borrowed them from his sibling in Egypt.
“If you normally wear your brother’s shoes then do you leave him a pair of your own for him to wear back home?” the judge continued.
However, the accused kept denying all charges of drug possession but admitted that he was under the influence of drugs only because he took them before entering the UAE.
“You can try to escape justice but you cannot escape God,” the judge said.
The verdict will be announced on November 25.
