/ 8 January 2006

Sleeping drug dealer saved by Islamic law

An Egyptian youth who may have been a drug dealer can thank Islamic law he was ”sleeping on the job”, because that got him off charges of drug possession, the Akhbar al-Yom daily reported on Saturday.

The unnamed 25-year-old was freed by a criminal court in Damanhur, near Cairo, despite having been found in possession of a large packet of hashish, the paper said.

The problem for the police was that they had arrested him as he slept, with the packet on him.

A strict interpretation of sharia (Islamic law), a basis for Egyptian jurisprudence, prohibits someone from being arrested while they sleep. — Sapa-AFP