A British soccer coach jailed for 25 years in Dubai over possession of CBD vape liquid is being “tortured” in jail, a buddy of his has alleged.
Billy Hood, 24, was discovered responsible of possession, promoting and drug trafficking after police discovered hashish vape juice in his automobile on 31 January.
Within the UK, CBD oil is authorized because it accommodates solely hint quantities of the psychoactive cannabinoid THC.
However the United Arab Emirates – the place Mr Hood, from west London, had moved to in 2020 to work as a kids’s soccer coach – has a zero-tolerance method to all cannabinoids and psychoactive medication.
Sentences for drug trafficking offences might be as extreme because the loss of life penalty, and possession of the smallest quantity of unlawful medication might end in not less than 4 years in jail, the UK International Workplace web site says.
Mr Hood informed marketing campaign group Detained in Dubai that police had unexpectedly turned up and demanded to look his house and automobile. He additionally submitted to a voluntary medication check which got here again damaging.
He claimed the oil was left by a buddy who had been visiting from England two weeks earlier.
Dubai police are thought to have singled him out after monitoring WhatsApp messages and searching for phrases associated to medication, resembling CBD, the abbreviation for cannabinol.
Per week earlier than Mr Hood’s arrest the buddy who owned the vape liquid despatched him a message telling him he had forgot it in his automobile.
Officers then took Mr Hood to a police station and stored in a cell for 14 days “with none hygiene merchandise”, the BBC reported.
This month, he was was convicted by a court docket of drug trafficking with intent to provide this month, for which he acquired a 25-year jail sentence.
Now, he has reportedly informed certainly one of his pals that he’s being tortured on the Al-Barsha jail in Dubai.
Alfie Cain, a soccer agent, claimed that Mr Hood had been overwhelmed for 5 days as officers from Dubai’s CID tried to power him into confessing to drug crimes.
Mr Hood had solely signed the drug trafficking “confession”, written in Arabic, as a result of he was exhausted and in ache, and since officers mentioned they’d cease beating him if he did, it was alleged.
Mr Cain was quoted by The Solar as saying: “It’s been unhealthy in Al-Barsha, I’m not going to sugar coat it.
“After they took him to the CID medication unit they beat him for a whole 5 days, he informed me cops tasered him, slapped him within the face and all they fed him was bread and little little bit of water. He was principally tortured and put in a cell with 30 different individuals for 5 days.
“Billy mentioned they informed him he might go house if he signed the paper, that’s why he gave in and signed that piece of paper in Arabic he had no concept what he signing, however he simply needed to make it cease.”
Radha Stirling, founder and CEO of strain group Detained in Dubai, which helps the Hood household, mentioned that pressured and coerced confessions are widespread in Dubai.
She described his remedy and sentence as “excessive” for “having an oil that may’t even get you excessive”.
Ms Stirling added that possession of CBD oil would solely end in a sentence of a few years at most, however that Mr Hood’s sentence was 25 years due to the costs of trafficking and promoting.
Mr Hood’s household has arrange a GoFundMe web page to pay for authorized charges, which has up to now raised almost £15,000.
On the fundraising web page, it says: “He will probably be launched in 10 days or perhaps 10 years. In the mean time we simply don’t know.”
Mr Hood’s household are interesting to the UK and UAE authorities to intervene within the case.
His mom Breda Guckion informed the BBC: “I’ve hidden myself away, crying and crying after I think about what our candy boy goes by way of. It’s the worst stress I’ve ever been by way of and I really feel helpless.”
