Man jailed for being Rasta

Man jailed in Dubai 'targeted for being Rastafarian'
9th Feb 2008

All credits - Milton Keynes Citizen

The brother of a man, from the West Midlands, jailed in Dubai accused authorities in the United Arab Emirates of targeting him for being a "Rastafarian" and committing a "grave injustice".
Keith Brown, 43, passed through Dubai airport on his way from Ethiopia to his home in Smethwick when he was stopped and searched.

Customs officials uncovered 0.003g of cannabis - an amount which would be invisible to the naked eye and weighs less than a single grain of sugar - in the tread of his shoe.

The youth development officer was sentenced to four years in prison but his incarceration has outraged friends and family.

Lee Brown, 57, said: "Keith's distraught and he's angry, he isn't happy. To think that something like that has happened to him when he was in transit ... we believe it was because he was a Rastafarian that he was singled out."

Insisting that Mr Brown was unaware of the traces of drugs on his shoe, he added: "He could have stepped in it walking along and he got hell for that.

"I think they were hoping to find other things on him. It's hard to put into words how you feel about such a grave injustice."

Mr Brown also said his brother was aware of Dubai's zero-tolerance drugs policy and insisted he would not have broken the law deliberately.

The list of banned substances in the UAE includes many products which are available over-the-counter and off-the-shelf in the UK. These include medications such as codeine, a common ingredient in pain relief and cold-and-flu medication, and the common baking ingredient, poppy seeds.