Dallas Austin, the songwriter and music producer bust at Dubai airport in May with cocaine in his possession, was found guilty and sentenced to four years in jail, only to be pardoned a few hours later. He will continue to stay in jail until paperwork for his deportation has been completed, which is expected to be in a day or two.

According to two of Austin’s lawyers it was the Ruler of Dubai, the High Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who issued the pardon. As I wrote a couple of days ago there had been speculation in the media that the Grammy-award winning producer would get a pardon from the Ruler, only usually issued in “special cases”. That he was apparently on his way to birthday celebrations for supermodel Naomi Campbell being provided by her Dubai prince boyfriend couldn’t have hurt.

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