A former US Navy serviceman’s 10-year prison sentence for selling drugs using a social media platform has been upheld by the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court despite his lawyer’s attempts to shift the blame on to another convicted American who shared his home.
In April, the High Criminal Court had found the defendant guilty of selling hashish and methamphetamine on Snapchat and using hashish. On top of the jail term, he was fined BD5,000.
The housemate, who the defence tried to pin the case on, was a well-known American basketball player who was recently convicted of importing marijuana with the intent to sell it to US Navy personnel.
Just like the appellant, the athlete was sentenced in a separate case to 10 years behind bars and fined BD5,000.
According to court documents, the appellant had been arrested after he agreed to sell five grammes of hashish for BD100 to a police informant. The expatraite engineer, from the US state of Ohio, admitted to using marijuana to ‘calm himself down’ and to cope with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the Iraq War.
Because the information the appellant provided to authorities led to the athlete’s arrest, the defence had requested judges to be more lenient in sentencing.
His lawyer Yousif Ghunaim further argued that the two Americans were tried in separate criminal trials so that his client could not benefit from a law that allows those who lead authorities to other suspects to be sentenced more leniently.
The 36-year-old asked the judges for mercy because he had no prior criminal record and had a wife and two children who were ‘completely dependent on him.’
The GDN earlier reported that a search of the appellant’s residence in Hoora yielded ‘a large amount of narcotics’ and approximately BD21,675 in numerous currencies hidden in a metal safe.
Materials to prepare the contraband for sale like packaging and scales were also found at his home. Traces of marijuana were detected in his urine sample.
Photographs of coloured pills, packs of capsules, drug substances placed on an electronic scale, herbs wrapped in plastic, and hand-rolled cigarettes were found on his iPhone, as well as other drugs-related images.
The American reportedly refused to reveal the secret code to open the safe, so the Public Prosecution used the assistance of the Civil Defence to destroy the safe’s door. Investigators found BD20,930, $1,791, 500 Saudi riyals and 200 Emirati dirhams inside.
“Seeing as the defendant had amounts of cash in this variety and quantity, along with the drugs found in his possession, the court deduces that the money must have been earned from selling the narcotics,” original verdict documents said. “The money, therefore, was to be treated as such and confiscated.”
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