AP News, December 18th, 2007
A Canadian U.N. official who advised the Afghan government on eradicating opium poppy crops was granted amnesty by Dubai Monday, six months after being sentenced to four years in prison on a drug smuggling conviction.
Bert Tatham, 35, was arrested April 23 during a one-hour stopover at the Dubai International Airport, after being caught with a half a gram of hashish, and two poppy bulbs. He pleaded innocent.
Tatham's attorney, Saeed Al-Gailani, argued at the arraignment in June that his client inadvertently carried a small amount of drugs because part of his job was to collect "tons of drugs every day" in Afghanistan.
"His trousers must have mistakenly picked up the tiny quantity of hashish," al-Gailani said.
As for the poppy bulbs, al-Gailani said Tatham was taking them to Canada "for experiments and education."
The judge said in June that Tatham must serve his full sentence and then be deported from this Gulf country, known for its "zero tolerance" policy on narcotics.
But Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, pardoned 377 inmates of Dubai prisons this week, including Tatham, on the eve of Eid al-Adha, an important Islamic holiday.
It is common for rulers of the Gulf countries to declare amnesties during Islamic festivals.
"We welcome this act of goodwill by the Government of Dubai. Canada highly values its friendship with the U.A.E.," said Canada's Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier.
Tatham was arrested en route to Canada from the Afghan city of Kandahar, where he worked as a consultant for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and as an adviser to the Afghan government's poppy elimination program.
The program aims to convince Afghan farmers to stop growing poppies, which are used for production of opium and then heroin.
