An appeals court has reduced the prison sentence of an expatriate saleswoman who was convicted of importing 1.2kg of marijuana via airmail from Thailand.
In May this year, the High Criminal Court found the 49-year-old Filipina guilty of intending to sell and promote the narcotic, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
However, after ‘re-evaluating’ the verdict, the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court has reduced the penalty to 10 years in prison, but it upheld a BD5,000 fine and an order to deport the appellant after she finished serving her sentence.
Although the court did not change its mind on the Filipina’s guilt, it decided to alter the sentence to make it more befitting of the crime committed, according to the verdict.
The woman’s defence earlier argued before judges that she could not be guilty as she was ignorant of the contents of the box, and had no connection to the illicit substances, but the court dismissed such claims.
“The court considers the evidence against the appellant to be sufficient. The appellant’s phone number is listed on the package,” read the new ruling.
“Possession means simply laying one’s hand on the narcotics, and the person charged with it does not need to be the owner. It is a crime even if another person obtained the illegal substance.
“A suspect is also considered complicit if they were safekeeping the substance on behalf of the owner, or transporting it and handing it over to those who want to conceal it from the eyes of the law.”
The GDN earlier reported that the woman was arrested when she arrived at a courier’s to pick up the package containing 12 bags of tightly-sealed ‘foodstuffs’, later confirmed to be hashish.
In a previous hearing, she submitted a handwritten letter to the court begging for mercy, claiming that she was only doing her friend a favour by running an errand for them, and was not aware what was inside the package. “I am deeply broken and miserable, for I am really innocent of the crime for which I have been blamed,” read her letter.
“I was only used by somebody else, and didn’t know it. I’m not really the owner of the parcel, and the parcel is not under my name. I was just asked to receive it on behalf of a friend.”
An investigator who worked on the case claimed that the appellant was part of an organised network of narcotics dealers.
Her role was to fetch the parcels, then hand it to other members of the network, who go on to divide, pack, distribute, advertise and sell the marijuana, the court heard.
During Public Prosecution questioning, the woman admitted that she was tasked with picking up packages and then sending them to another individual in the chain. She was reportedly paid BD20 for a pick-up.
The woman said she would agree ahead of time to meet the man who took the package from her. This alleged accomplice has not been traced, apprehended, charged or tried.
According to court records, this was not the first time that the Filipina had carried out such a task. She had accepted multiple packages in the past from another individual involved in smuggling drugs.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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