Grooverider petition pleads deportation and points fingers

Grooverider petition pleads deportation and points fingers

27 February, 2008 | 12.12PM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: dubai, grooverider

The recent news that British drum & bass hero Grooverider has been sentenced to four years in prison for poseession of cannabis in Dubai has shocked his fans into setting up an online petition.

And rightly so.

Whilst drug trafficking is a serious crime, 2.16 grams of Marijuana hardly constitutes a serious offense, at least the kind of offense that warrants four years behind bars.

The petition already has over 7800 signatures and support is growing rapidly.

It also, quite interestingly, points fingers at the promoter that originally booked Grooverider for his gig last November.

“No Victim At All”

The petition itself is very well written and well argued, which leads Beatportal to think it was Grooverider’s own lawyers that drafted it.

It reads: “This country [UAE] is well known for its high economic development, but has also been starting to be questioned not about its social and cultural values but about the procedures used in order to enforce them.

“This questioning has been increasing in the last years and now it reaches Europe making the European society, which has evolved the law enforcement procedures, shocked at the exaggerated strength of the penalties to victimless crimes.

“The crime that Raymond Bingham [Grooverider] committed is indeed a punishable crime although it has no victim at all, the amount of cannabis which he had in his possession was not enough for more than one person, this makes the possibility of the cannabis that was being carried into UAE being for exchange completely remote.

“In these cases where there is no victim and the infraction is related to cultural divergences we believe that the penalty should be enforced in the country of one’s origin which is the most efficient way of applying the most adequate penalty for the acused’s cultural context.

“We hope that the UAE will continue to be successful in enforcing their laws in the future but we also hope that the penalties that were created for this enforcement will always be applied considering the existence or not of a victim and the good or bad will of the defendant considering his or her physical and psychological condition.”

The laws of Dubai - faxed?

The petition then starts to point fingers at the promoter who booked Grooverider for the gig last November that led to the fateful day when he was caught at customs in Dubai airport.

“Mr. Nath, the events promoter that hired Mr. Raymond Bingham stated that he had sent a fax to Mr. Bingham explaining the Laws of Dubai, as we don’t know if this is true or if it was received, we interpret these statements as a self-protective effort by Mr. Nath in order to assure his reputation before the UAE’s society.

“Mr. Nath statements may constitute a coward action that could affect Mr. Bingham’s legal situation in a harmful manner and there could be already a strong rejection of Mr. Nath’s activities by the international artistic community as a consequence.”

Which interestingly, reveals some of the court proceedings that must have taken place that led to Grooverider being convicted.

From the looks of this statement, it seems that the promoter Mr. Nath claimed in court that he had sent a fax to Grooverider prior to his visit, explaining the laws of Dubai.

Such an action, would at least, clear him of all responsibility.

But clearly Bingham’s people think he’s lying to cover his own ass.

They conclude: “Please, in the name of all the undersigned, proceed to a deportation of Mr. Raymond Bingham as soon as possible.”

Click here to check out the petition.

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