A BRIT footballer jailed in Dubai over CBD vape oil claims to have bombshell evidence that Dubai cops framed him, reports suggest.
Billy Hood, 24, launched his appeal yesterday and campaigners say new damming evidence will show his case has been "manufactured" by cops.
Bill was sentenced to 25 years in a hell hole jail last week after he was found guilty of possession, selling and drug trafficking after police found just four small bottles of CBD vape oil in his car.
While a friend of the footballer, from Ladbroke Grove, West London, even claimed he had been “tortured” and “tasered” in the Dubai prison ever since.
But Detained in Dubai's CEO, Radha Stirling, said there is sufficient evidence authorities have "basically manufactured a case against Billy".
The campaigner said: “Billy has already spent a horrendous nine months in a Dubai jail notorious for human rights violations after being forced to confess to serious crimes in Arabic.
"Adding yet another delay to his freedom and the review of his defence evidence is gutting to the family and to Billy.
"Every day an innocent man spends a day in prison is a travesty."
It comes just after hours she had previously said "it's very clear" the court "never even heard Billy's defence".
“The prosecution evidence that Billy was ‘selling drugs’ relies solely on Billy having £4,000 cash in his apartment and they are fully aware this was money paid by his employer for his coaching job," she explained.
She added: "Social media communications confirm that the bottles were not Billy’s, did not belong to him and that he had no interest or desire to have them in his possession".
"Billy should not be punished for the mistakes of his friend," she said.
"It is appalling that the police charged him with selling drugs and even more appalling that the Judge accepted it."
Meanwhile, Billy's familyhas blasted his arrest as "ridiculous" and Ms Stirling today confirmed an appeal to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum.
In a statement, his family said they were "angered" by what they claimed was the UAE's "propaganda" in the case.
“Authorities first say it was CBD vape ware and now they are calling it something else," they said.
"It seems like they are just trying to salvage their own terrible reputation after embarrassing the whole country with this ridiculous arrest.
“Billy’s drug tests all returned negative. Anyone who knows Billy has vouched for him and his 100 per cent anti-drug policy.
"It is absolutely absurd that the police have not only ruined his life but also slandered him and his reputation.
'RIDICULOUS ARREST'
"It’s not acceptable that Billy has been held for more than nine months over four small bottles of vape oil that were not even his and that he has no interest in."
Speaking to a friend Alfie Cain after his arrest in January, Billy described facing horrendous conditions at the notorious Al-Barsha jail in Dubai.
Football agent Alfie says Billy was beaten daily for five days as officers from Dubai’s CID tried to force the young coach to confess to drug crimes.
“It's been bad in Al-Barsha, I'm not going to sugar coat it,” Alfie, a former non-league footballer from London, told The SunOnline.
“When they took him to the CID drugs unit they beat him for an entire five days, he told me police officers tasered him, slapped him in the face and all they fed him was bread and little bit of water.
“He was basically tortured and put in a cell with 30 other people for five days.”
Billy only signed the drug trafficking confession because officers told him if he signed the document, written in Arabic, they would stop the abuse.
"Billy said they told him he could go home if he signed the paper, that's why he gave in and signed that piece of paper in Arabic he had no idea what he signing, but he just wanted to make it stop.”
'FORCED CONFESSION'
Human Rights Watch have slammed the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions at the jail.
Vaping CBD oil is legal in the UK and has become extremely popular – typically used to relieve pain, anxiety or stress.
But because it sometimes contains trace elements of THC – the main psychoactive compound found in cannabis – Billy was arrested and thrown in prison under the UAE’s harsh drug laws.
He joins many detainees who have been suffered at the hands of the hellish jail, including Brits Albert Douglas and Lee Bradley Brown.
Radha Stirling added today: “Albert Douglas has been locked up for nine months too. He was forced to sign a confession and was beaten by police causing him to be hospitalised to repair his broken bones.
"Lee Bradley Brown was killed in police custody and yet the British FCDO has done nothing but trade deals. They are essentially complicit by remaining muted over these abuses.”
"This (Billy's case) is not the first time and if the British government doesn’t insist things change in the UAE, it won’t be the last.”
Back home, Billy's heartbroken mum Breda, told The Sun: “I don’t think there’s a word in the dictionary that describes the pain I’m going through.
“I can't talk about it without tears forming in my eyes. It's too hard to take in.
Mum-of-three Breda, 55, said: “This is not our Billy, he is 100 per cent innocent."
This is not our Billy, he is 100 per cent innocent.
In a statement through his lawyers, Billy said he had just moved to Dubai to coach kids' football and was arrested when he went to get something from his car.
“They jumped out to arrest me, handcuffed me. One officer jumped out and pointed a Taser at me, threatening to use it if I didn’t cooperate,” he said.
“They demanded to show them where the drugs are. I was shocked, scared and confused. I told them I wasn’t aware or in possession of any drugs or substances.”
The police had told Billy they were interested in him because of something they had seen on social media.
Convinced they had the wrong man, Billy allowed officers to search his apartment and car and submitted to a voluntary drugs test which came back negative.
There is zero tolerance for drug-related offences in the UAE.
The penalties for trafficking, smuggling and possession of even tiny amounts of drugs are severe.
Sentences for drug trafficking can include the death penalty and possession of even the smallest amount of illegal drugs can lead to a minimum four-year jail sentence.
Billy's family has set up a GoFundMe page which has so far raised over £17,000.
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