Cassation Court upholds over 3-year sentence for drug dealer

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a May State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a drug dealer to over three years in prison after convicting him of possessing illegal narcotics in Ramtha in July of last year.

The court declared the defendant guilty of obtaining and selling seven pills of Captagon pills to an undercover agent on July 5.

The SSC handed the defendant five years in prison for the offence of possessing illegal narcotics and ordered him to pay JD5,000 in fines.

However, the court decided to reduce the fine to JD3,500 and the prison term to three years and four months in prison to give the defendant a second chance in life.

Court documents said the Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) learnt the defendant was in possession of illegal narcotics and sent one of its agents to pose as a buyer.

“The AND agent got in touch with the defendant and asked him for seven Captagon pills in return for JD15,” court documents said.

When the two met, the AND agent paid the defendant and took the pills, court papers added.

Ten days later, the court maintained, the law-enforcement agency raided the defendant’s home and arrested him.

Upon searching the defendant’s house, court papers said, AND personnel found a small quantity of illegal narcotics, including Hashish and Crystal meth". 

The defendant contested the SSC’s ruling through his lawyer, who argued that the court “did not provide solid evidence to implicate his client”.

“The court relied on the testimony of one witness to implicate my client,” the lawyer charged.

The lawyer also claimed that his client possessed the illegal narcotics for his personal use and, therefore, “he should get a lesser prison term”.

Meanwhile, the SSC prosecution office asked the higher court to uphold the sentence and the fine imposed on the defendant.

The higher court maintained that the SSC had followed the proper procedures in issuing the sentence against the defendant.

“It was clear to the court that the defendant confessed willingly to possessing the illegal drugs,” the higher court said.

The Court of Cassation judges were Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat, Hammad Ghzawi Qassem Dughmi and Mohammad Khashashneh.