An Emirati court this week sentenced a 43-year-old Israeli woman to death following her conviction for possessing 500 grams of cocaine, Ynet reported on Tuesday.

Fida Kiwan, an Arab-Israeli resident of Haifa and the owner of a photography studio, traveled to the United Arab Emirates a year ago after receiving a work offer from a Palestinian Arab acquaintance for graphic design, and moved into an apartment he had arranged for her in advance. A week after her arrival, Emirati police conducted a search of her apartment and found 500 grams of cocaine, more than the amount considered for personal use only. The Israeli woman claims that the drugs did not belong to her.

She has been imprisoned since then and is being represented by a local attorney, who has already filed an appeal in an attempt to reduce the sentence.

Drug offenses are considered extremely severe in the UAE, and those convicted for drug trafficking can face a death sentence. However, death sentences are rarely enforced and are often converted to lengthy prison sentences. In fact, the UAE has never actually executed a drug trafficker.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that “the case is known to us and we are handling it
through the Department of Israelis Abroad and via Israel’s envoys in the Emirates.”

This is the second reported case of an Israeli arrested in the UAE for drug offenses. In October 2021, an Arab-Israeli resident of Lod, Khalil Dasuki, 31, was arrested in Dubai for suspected drug trafficking. The Emirati police said they found a cargo container with half a ton of pure cocaine, worth about $135 million, that Dasuki tried smuggling into the UAE, with the intention of then smuggling it into Israel. The police claimed at the time that it was the largest-ever drug seizure in the region and that Dasuki was an operative for an international drug syndicate.

Dasuki is also facing a possible death sentence.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)