Expat deported from Oman for selling prohibited products

Muscat: An expatriate was imprisoned and deported from Oman for selling prohibited products in the country, Consumer Protection Authority (CPA) said in a statement.

"The Court of First Instance in the Wilayat of Ibra in North Al Sharqiyah Governorate recently issued a judicial ruling against an expatriate worker for violating the Consumer Protection Law issued by Royal Decree No. (66/2014 ), which sentenced him to conviction, imprisonment, deportation from the country and confiscation of seized products," CPA said in a statement.

The Consumer Protection Department said that an expat worker circulated prohibited materials in North Al Sharqiyah Governorate. Accordingly, the department searched and investigated and after confirming the information, permission was taken from the Public Prosecution to search the house of the accused.

When the accused was arrested, authorities found 30 packs of Maher cigarettes, 375 bags of chewing tobacco, 8 bags of Mist type chewing tobacco and seven bags of Raja Chen chewing tobacco, in addition to OMR 486 and other foreign currencies.

The accused stated that he worked in the Sultanate as a businessman and had no sponsors, and added that he is the owner of all the seized items.

The accused also confirmed that he came to the Sultanate as an infiltrator by sea about a year ago after he was deported from the country after spending four months in prison.

The authorities convicted the accused of the misdemeanour of handling prohibited substances, a misdemeanour of working in the Sultanate without a licence from the competent authority and a misdemeanour of returning to the Sultanate illegally after he was released from it.

The competent authorities decided to punish him for the first case with three months of imprisonment, for the second case with one-month imprisonment and three years of imprisonment for the third case.  The punishment is implemented with the order to expel him from the country and deprive him of entry for life after the execution of the penalty. The seized items are to be destroyed and the seized money is to be used for the benefit of the state’s public treasury.