Cassation Court upholds over 3-year sentence for drug dealer

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an August 2022 State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a drug dealer to over three years in prison after convicting him of possessing illegal narcotics in Zarqa in April 2022.

The court declared the defendant guilty of obtaining illegal narcotics (hashish) with the intent of selling the drugs to an undercover agent on April 19.

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) learned 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 a small stash of illegal drugs in return for JD26,” court documents said.

When the defendant headed to the designated place to deliver the illegal drugs he saw AND agents closing in on him so he “dumped the narcotics in the street and ran”.

“The defendant was immediately arrested and upon searching him, officers found three Captagon on him,” court papers added.

Upon searching the defendant, court papers said, AND personnel found a small quantity of illegal narcotics on him". 

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 lawyer also argued that his client suffered from mental illness “and should have been referred to psychiatric evaluation but the court refused the request”, according to court documents.

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, Mohammad Khashashneh, Qassem Dughmi and Hammad Ghzawi.