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Valium seafarer finally goes home.

picture : Valium seafarer finally goes home.Valium seafarer finally goes home.
09-06-2005

The Croatian ship’s officer jailed in the United Arab Emirates for having Valium sleeping pills is finally free to go home after a four-month ordeal.

Denio Ruskovic, third officer on the V Ships MV Marine Pacific, was arrested in January as he signed-off in Fujairah and accused of drug smuggling. Even though the pills had been prescribed by his doctor, they are officially banned in the UAE. After 84 days in jail he was released and told he had to pay a large fine and would be banned from the country for life, and that the prosecution would appeal against his release.

The case finally came to an end on Monday May 31 when judges ruled he could leave the UAE with no fine or risk of deportation. “He will get his passport back on Saturday and he looks happy and relieved,” said The Mission to Seafarers Dubai chaplain Stephen Miller who supported Ruskovic throughout his suffering.

Stephen visited the prison to give practical and spiritual support and worked hard for his release. This included helping to get the prescription, which was in Croat, translated into English and then into Arabic, for the court – evidence which ultimately led to him being set free.

Stephen also relayed messages from his family and from the seafarers’ union in Croatia. Direct contact was difficult as the prison authorities only allowed one telephone call every 15 days.

After his release, the shipping company paid for him to stay at a hotel in Dubai. “However,” said Stephen, ”the stress of the appeal, and the possibility that he might have had to go back to prison again, made him ill. He was admitted to hospital where, ironically, he was prescribed Valium.”

Stephen has called on shipping agents in the UAE to warn seafarers of the danger of carrying even the most innocent of drugs when joining or leaving ships there.

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