CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Former Dutch international Quincy Promes is to resume his career in the United Arab Emirates where he is fighting extradition to the Netherlands after being sentenced to six years in prison in absentia for drug trafficking.
The striker, who has 50 caps for the Netherlands, has joined United FC of Dubai who play in the second tier, the club said on social media.
A Dutch court said earlier this year that Promes had been directly involved with the shipments of 1,360kg of cocaine from Brazil through the port of Antwerp, Belgium, to the Netherlands in two shipments in 2020.
The 32-year-old former Ajax Amsterdam and Sevilla forward was arrested in Dubai in March at the request of the Dutch public prosecution service when he was at a training camp with Russian club Spartak Moscow.
Last year, Promes was also sentenced in absentia to 18 months in jail for assault in connection with a fight in 2020 in which he stabbed a cousin in the knee.
Promes has denied all charges and has filed an appeal in both cases.
In May he was released from detention under restrictions, which include not leaving the United Arab Emirates.
Spartak Moscow terminated his contract at the end of June.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
