Today (October 19), a Notting Hill football coach who received a 25-year prison sentence in Dubai for having cannabis oil has delayed his appeal.
Billy Hood, 24, was playing semi-professionally at 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 him.
The conviction came despite Billy being able to prove that a visiting friend mistakenly left a cannabis oil vape liquid found in his car, MailOnline reports.
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An appeal against Billy’s conviction was supposed to be heard today, but Radha Stirling, director general of the Dubai-detained pressure group that helps foreign nationals arrested in the emirate, now says it has retrograde until November 30th.
Speaking on the group’s podcast, Stirling said Billy’s lawyers attended court, but “they were told to return in six weeks, on November 30.”
Billy Hood, 24, said he was unaware of CBD oil bottles and that there was a vape pen in his company’s vehicle after giving a London friend a pick-up at the airport two weeks before he was fired. arrested.
(Image: Instagram: Billy Hood free)
He went on to say that this may not be definitive and added that the “judicial process is quite random and unpredictable in the United Arab Emirates”.
“However, what this shows is that the UAE is likely to keep Billy in custody for another six weeks.”
He continued: “Billy has already spent about nine horrible months in a Dubai prison known for human rights violations after being forced to confess to serious crimes in Arabic.
“Adding another delay to his freedom and the review of defense evidence is affecting his family and Billy. Every day an innocent man spends a day in prison is a hoax.”
Billy was stunned in January when police showed up at his apartment to demand a search of him and his company car.
They found four small vials of cannabis oil (CBD) and a pen in the passenger door passenger compartment.
Ms Stirling and detained in Dubai say the court has documents showing Dubai police “fabricated a case against Billy” and calls on the UK government to increase travel warnings for Britons planning to visit Dubai.
“Prosecution evidence that Billy“ sold drugs ”is based solely on Billy having £ 4,000 in cash in his apartment and they are fully aware that this is money paid by his employer for his coaching work,” he reasoned. .
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Regarding drug possession, he said: “Communications on social media 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 shouldn’t be punished for his friend’s mistakes. It’s horrible for the police to accuse him of selling drugs and even more horrible for the judge to accept it.”
It is the treatment of Billy along with previous cases of ill-treatment of British citizens, including Albert Douglas who has been imprisoned for nine months in Dubai, and Lee Bradley-Brown, murdered in the custody of Dubai police in 2011, who has brought Detainees in Dubai to ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take action.
“Families have also appealed to the governor of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, to review the evidence and help these men get to their families’ homes.” Mrs. Stirling said.
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