Three expatriates jailed for selling contaminated meat

The court also ordered their deportation once their prison sentences were completed

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Three expats who bought sick animals and sold their contaminated meat to restaurants and companies in Oman were sentenced to jail and subsequent deportation, the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP) said.

The First Instances Court of Barka sentenced two of the expats to one-year and six months jailterm respectively, while the third one was awarded a cumulative three year sentence for trading the adulterated commodities and working with another employer [which is illegal].

The court also ordered their deportation once their prison sentence was completed.

PACP said, “the details of the incident dated back to when PACP Department in Barka in cooperation with Public Prosecution Department in Barka, Barka Police Station and Barka Municipality managed to arrest a number of expat workers who were buying sick animals from one of the farms in order to slaughter them and distribute their meat to some restaurants and companies.”

“The suspects bought sick livestock at low prices and slaughtered them in places away from view, in a farm in the Wilayat of Barka,” PACP added.

After investigation and observing the expat workers, one of them was caught red-handed after he bought a sick bull and loaded it in a pickup vehicle to be delivered to the farm in preparation for slaughter. An inspection warrant was taken and the judicial order was given to the veterinarian of the municipality of Barka where the farm was raided.

The worker was then arrested as he was about to slaughter the sick animal, where tools for slaughtering and bags for meat distribution were found.

On examination of the bull, signs of disease were identified including weakness, presence of patches in the eye, bleeding spots in the liver, heart and lungs, and lymph gland enlargement after the animal was slaughtered and samples were taken.

The entire body of the bull was affected by blood poisoning which had spread throughout its body, making it unfit for human consumption.

The Assistant Director of PACP, Yousuf bin Ahmed Al Riyami said, “It’s important to create a real partnership between the Authority and consumers in order to deal with such acts that are not related to our religious values and to counter the fraud practiced by a small group, stressing the importance of the owners of private farms to what is happening in their farms when they rented them to expats.”