AN APPEALS court has upheld a 10-year prison sentence passed on an American basketball player who was found guilty of using and importing marijuana to sell on to US Navy personnel.
He was fined BD5,000 by the High Criminal Court, which also ruled to deport him after he had completed his sentence.
The 37-year-old athlete took to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court to appeal the judgement and it upheld the original August ruling.
The two-metre-tall basketball player was found guilty of ordering a marijuana shipment weighing 2,634gm to an address on the US Navy base belonging to a naval officer.
A co-defendant, an Eritrean woman, was accused of supplying him with the contact information of American personnel to sell the product to. She was acquitted of all charges in May.
Although the American appellant denied selling marijuana, he did admit giving it to friends and acquaintances in return for help with personal matters.
“The quantity of narcotics imported is clearly not just for personal use,” read the appeals verdict, responding to an attempt by the defence to acquit the appellant of dealing charges.
“He operates for one month and stops for three, which is evidence of him being a professional in the business.
“In text conversations, he never uses his real name and uses code words like ‘chocolate’ and ‘trees’ to refer to marijuana.”
The verdict also referred to chat logs retrieved from his mobile, wherein the appellant’s clientele ask for ‘hash’ and use the aforementioned code words to refer to his wares.
Throughout both trials, lawyer Alya Al Zeera put forth a series of arguments and counter-allegations to exonerate the American of drug dealing charges, but her arguments failed to convince judges of her client’s innocence.
She earlier alleged that the appellant was framed by the Fifth Fleet, in order to protect the serviceman to whom the package was addressed.
Ms Al Zeera told judges that the US Navy ‘used promises and intimidation’ to compel him to take the blame for the incident, assuring that the appellant would walk free if he stood trial in place of the naval officer.
She claimed that her client gave his confession to the crime based on assurances and threats from the US base that they would help him get acquitted of all charges if he admitted ownership of the parcel.
“The truth is, the naval officer was the one who ordered the package, and the drugs belong to him,” she claimed.
In the appeals trial, she argued that her client’s conviction should be overturned because there was no ‘solid evidence’ incriminating him of drug dealing.
“Nothing other than a smoking pipe and cigarette rolling paper were found among his personal affects, and there is no proof of his involvement with the narcotics other than recreational use,” a memo she submitted to judges read.
The attorney went on to ask judges to have mercy on her client as he suffered from a chronic autoimmune disease known as lupus, claiming his health had deteriorated behind bars.
“My client has problems with breathing and vision. His kidneys were also affected by the lack of medical treatment, causing him to excrete and urinate blood,” she told the court. “He needs continuous treatment that is not available in custody.”
Medical reports detailing the appellant’s condition dating to 2022 were attached to court documents, signed by two different doctors from two specialist hospitals.
Lupus symptoms that the athlete suffered from were listed in the report, including joint and muscle pain, fatigue, rash, swelling and tenderness in both wrists, painful movement of elbows, shoulders and knees.
“The patient has had a known case of systemic lupus since 2008, when he was diagnosed by a rheumatologist in California,” read the report.
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