Dubai prison ordeal drags on for coach
FOOTBALL COACH MUST WAIT ANOTHER SIX WEEKS FOR APPEAL OVER CANNABIS OIL IN CAR
A FOOTBALL coach from Notting Hill who was handed a 25-year jail sentence in Dubai for possessing cannabis oil has had his appeal delayed by six weeks.
Billy Hood, 24, played semi-professionally for Kensington and Ealing Borough FC and was coaching football in Dubai when he was arrested in January and convicted of drug trafficking with intent to supply.
The conviction came despite Billy being able to prove the cannabis oil vape liquid found in his car was left mistakenly by a visiting friend, reports MailOnline.
An appeal hearing against Billy’s conviction was supposed to be heard today but Radha Stirling, CEO of pressure group detained in Dubai who help foreign nationals arrested in the emirate, now says it has been pushed back until November 30.
Speaking on the group’s podcast, Ms Stirling said Billy’s lawyers attended court but “were told to come back in six weeks, on the 30th of November.”
She continued that this may not be final adding that the “judicial process is rather random and unpredictable in the UAE.
“However, what this does show is that the UAE is likely to keep Billy in custody for another six weeks.”
She continued: “Billy has already spent a horrendous nine months in a Dubai jail notorious for human rights violations after being forced to confess to serious crimes in Arabic.
“Adding yet another delay to his freedom and the review of his defence evidence is gutting to the family and to Billy. Every day an innocent man spends a day in prison is a travesty.”
Billy was stunned in January when police turned up at his flat demanding to search it and his company car.
They found four small vials of cannabis oil (CBD) and a vape pen in the passenger door compartment.
Ms Stirling and Detained in Dubai say the court has documents proving that Dubai’s police “manufactured a case against Billy” and are calling on the UK Government to increase travel warnings for British people planning to visit Dubai.
“The prosecution evidence that Billy was ‘selling drugs’ relies solely on Billy having £4,000 cash in his apartment and they are fully aware this was money paid by his employer for his coaching job,” she reasoned.
In regards to the possession of the drug, she said: “Social media communications confirm that the bottles were not Billy’s, did not belong to him and that he had no interest or desire to have them in his possession.
“Billy should not be punished for the mistakes of his friend, it is appalling that the police charged him with selling drugs and even more appalling that the Judge accepted it.”
It is Billy’s treatment along with previous cases of mistreatment of British nationals including Albert Douglas who has been jailed for nine months now in Dubai, and Lee Bradley-Brown who was killed in Dubai Police custody in 2011 that has led Detained in Dubai to call on the Foreign Office to take action.
“The families have also appealed to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum to review the evidence and help these men get home to their families,” Ms Stirling said.