Trial of British on Emirates drug charges resumes

The trial of five British people accused of smuggling drugs into the United Arab Emirates is due to resume.

At an earlier hearing Sheikh Mohammed Al Zankali, head of the Shariah Court, sentenced Lebanese national Gilbert Palal to life imprisonment.

An Australian woman, Heidi Deboer, and another Lebanese man, Abdel Hamid Dandash, are also on trial.

The British accused are Anna Bartlett, 24, from Southend, Essex; Emirates flight attendant Katherine Jenkins, from Cimla, Neath, south Wales; Anne Kidd, 32, and her boyfriend Stacy Simpson, 28, both from Leeds; and Danielle Maalouf, 28, from London.

They have been held in the Emirates since they were arrested in Dubai last October.

Deboer earlier told the court that Simpson, Kidd and Bartlett brought the drugs into the country.

She also claimed there were more drugs hidden at the home of Jenkins, who was arrested on suspicion of possessing cocaine after 51.6 grammes of the drug were recovered from toilets at the company accommodation block she lived in.