The High Criminal Court of Appeal has reduced the life sentence of an expat, who was found guilty of possessing 9.5kg of unregulated synthetic cannabinoids, from 25 years in prison to 15 years.
The judges upheld the life sentence of the second defendant in the case, but ordered a fine of BD10,000 each and their deportation after completion of their jail terms.
The expat duo imported 23 bottles of hair oil via air mail from the UK, which in reality contained a large quantity of untested CBD oil, the court heard.
Lawyer Deena Al Qumaish, who represented the appellant, had argued that a text message he received, which the court used as a reason to convict him, was not a valid piece of evidence.
“In court documents, there was no buying or selling incident which my client was proven to have been part of, nor was there an identified buyer, or amounts of money confiscated,” she said in her defence.
“No sting operation was conducted, no recordings were made and my client was not previously surveilled. A digital scale confiscated from his belongings had tested negative for traces of drugs, and no packaging materials were found.
“In summary, there is no standalone piece of evidence directly linking my client to trading drugs. The proof the Public Prosecution submitted was not enough to establish a link for certain.
“Possession of the substance does not prove he was selling it.”
Ms Al Qumaish asked the court to change the accusation from a drug trading felony charge to just a drug use misdemeanour charge.
The evidence that the case hinged on was a text message received by the appellant, based on which the prosecution concluded that he intended to trade in cannabidiol (CBD oil).
His attorney argued he had just received an SMS, and the sender’s identity was not investigated, so the sender was not questioned, and it is not known what their relationship was with the appellant, especially since the appellant did not respond to the message.
While the court did not change the appellant’s charge from a felony to a misdemeanour, it nevertheless slashed his jail time.
The court heard that the suspects’ activities had come to the attention of authorities when a package containing liquid cannabidiol, weighing 9.5kg, was detected by Customs Affairs officers.
An investigation resulted in the arrest of the two defendants, who had reportedly used ‘dead drops’ or ‘dead mail’ as a method to distribute their illicit merchandise.
When policemen tried to apprehend the appellant, he had reportedly resisted arrest and punched an officer in the face. Police found 5.37g of hashish and 1.22g of shabu on his person, and drug paraphernalia in his car.
They also found two bottles of CBD oil weighing 60g, two ecstasy (MDMA) pills, 14 unidentified pills, two used medical needles used to suction and portion out the CBD oil, and cigarette wrapping paper in his residence.
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