A Qatar court has reportedly sentenced a resident to a suspended one-month jail term and a fine of QR1000 ($275) for attempting to “smuggle” a dummy hand grenade into the country.

The grenade was found by customs officials at Hamad International Airport in the middle of the defendant’s son’s clothes and toys. It was deemed “safe” because it did not contain any gunpowder, according to Al Raya.

However, the defendant, who was apparently of Arab origin, had failed to declare the item with customs, and was thus accused of attempting to smuggle it in, the newspaper added.

The customs department had demanded that he pay a penalty of QR150,000 ($41,204), but the court opted to fine him QR1,000.

The defendant said that the grenade was merely a “toy,” adding that one of his son’s friends put the grenade inside the bag.

He said that empty grenades are sold at very low prices in the European country he arrived from and that he wasn’t trying to evade paying the customs’ charges.

On Amazon, dummy grenades are sold from around $10 (QR36) to $12.69 (QR46).

According to Shop & Ship service Aramex, however, toy weapons and fake grenades are not allowed to be shipped to Qatar.

Customs law

However, Qatar’s Customs Authority makes no mention of rules and regulations regarding toys weapons or empty grenades in its traveler’s guidelines.

Still, it does prohibit passengers from flying with weapons, ammunition and explosives of all types.

Additionally, alcoholic beverage, drugs and “indecent material” in all forms, including books, magazines and movies, are also banned.

Personal luggage and gifts of up to QR3,000 ($824) are exempted from customs fees, in addition to up to 400 cigarettes, a personal laptop, or a camera.

A unified GCC law regulating customs’ rules and regulations was issued in Qatar in 2002.

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