A British traveler traveling through Dubai International Airport on a layover has just been sentenced to four years in a United Arab Emirate jail.
You’re probably thinking he did something crazy like punched a flight attendant, as Iva wrote about yesterday. You’ll never believe this: he was arrested for having a microscopic bit of marijuana on the bottom of his shoe.
The marijuana–which is strictly illegal in the UAE–weighed in at 0.003 grams, which is invisible to human eyes. But apparently the custom agents there practice a even harsher form of racial profiling than the American TSA folks.
Here are some more outrageous cases:
- One man has been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport. Painkiller codeine is also banned.
- A 25-year-old Briton who was found with a similar speck in one pocket as he arrived on holiday has been awaiting sentence since November.
- A Big Brother TV executive has so far been held without charge for five days after being arrested for possessing the health supplement melatonin.