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A UAE court sentenced a Filipino cook to three months in prison for attempted theft after he took a meal pack worth Dh10 from the cafeteria where he worked, wrote Sami al Reyami, a columnist with the Dubai-based Al Emarat al Youm newspaper.
The court's ruling was sound; there was theft, a stolen item, a thief and an admission of guilt - all elements of the crime are there.
"We're not challenging the verdict here, but there is a question to be asked. Given that one prisoner costs the state between Dh100 and Dh120 a day, in addition to unquantifiable costs, aren't all these state-borne costs disproportionate to the act of stealing committed by the accused? Is there any way to correlate the Dh10 stolen meal with the Dh10,800 it would cost to keep the prisoner in jail for three months?"
This is not to condone petty theft; it is definitely a punishable crime. "But there are other ways to punish petty thieves without hurting the state, for wouldn't you agree that by making the state pay tenfold the value of what is stolen, it is the state that is being punished more than the thief?
"Prison is not the only answer to petty theft. A salary deduction, a fine, suspension or dismissal from work and deportation would all be effective punishments."
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