A MAN accused of smuggling a million dinars worth of drugs into Bahrain in a shipment of vehicle parts deserves to be pardoned after he helped authorities seize a kilo of heroin and snitched on his own wife, a court heard.
Two Bahrainis, aged 23 and 29, were convicted of smuggling, possessing and dealing in drugs by the High Criminal Court, which sentenced them to life behind bars and fined BD5,000 each in April.
They appealed against their convictions at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court where lawyers submitted their final arguments yesterday.
They were arrested after the shipment, sent using international courier DHL, was intercepted by Customs officers in July last year. Three kilos of heroin worth BD1 million were found stashed in four steel pipes.
The 29-year-old defendant was a computer technician who worked at the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry.
The wife of the 23-year-old defendant was also sentenced to six months in jail and fined BD1,000 for possessing heroin.
Defence lawyer Fatima Al Hawaj, representing the 23-year-old defendant, said that he should have been pardoned as he helped authorities foil another smuggling attempt involving a kilo of heroin.
“According to Article 53 of the law, my client should have been pardoned,” she told a leading judge.
“My client did not only inform authorities about two drug dealers named Ali and Jan, but he also informed them about his wife’s
involvement.
“Though his wife was acquitted of the smuggling charge, he should have been pardoned because he helped authorities seize a kilo of heroin which was sent to him by his drug dealer in Pakistan.”
Ms Al Hawaj presented to the panel of judges a mobile phone belonging to the 23-year-old defendant which she claimed he used to phone his drug dealer in Pakistan, under police supervision, after he was arrested.
“This is evidence that my client helped authorities find out about the drug dealer and helped them confiscate a kilo of heroin,” she said, holding up the mobile phone.
“However, a detective did not include the drug dealer in this case and implicated him in a separate case.
“He did this so my client would not be pardoned.”
Lawyer Abdulrahman Ghunaim, representing the 29-year-old defendant, claimed that his client had a BD16,000 loan from a bank, which allegedly proves that he was not a “millionaire drug dealer”.
“How can he be a millionaire by smuggling and dealing in drugs and take a BD16,000 loan from a bank?” he said as he presented a leading judge with bank statements backing up his claims.
“He was in debt and therefore he could have not been making tons of cash from drug dealing.”
The 29-year-old previously claimed he had no knowledge of the drugs, accusing his friend of 11 years of providing his address as a shipping destination without his knowledge.
The trial was adjourned until December 14 for a verdict.
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