Dubai, Apr 8 (7days) : A lawyer representing a businesswoman jailed for 25 years for attempting to sell 1g of hashish is to ask the Dubai Attorney General to reopen the case.

Jassim Al Naqbi, the lawyer for British-Kenyan woman Sidhra Hassan Sheikh said his client had signed an Arabic-language confession without a translator when she was arrested in 2007.

She was convicted of possession and supply after the court heard evidence that she was involved with others in selling hashish in Dubai. Al Naqbi was recently hired by Sheikh to explore a possible appeal.

However, he said there was no chance of appeal as the case had already been heard by the UAE Supreme Court. He said the only chance was to write to the Dubai Attorney General, requesting that he reopen the file, as the woman did not know what she was signing.

He added that the judicial system is keen to punish drug dealers, regardless of the small amount they may have in their possession.

“It is the dealing that it important, not the amount they had,” he said. Speaking from prison, Sheikh said she had been in jail since 2008 and longed to see her son in Kenya and her family in the UK. She will be released in 2033 if she serves her full term.