Man handed 10-year prison term for drug possession

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a July 2020 State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a man to 10 years in prison after convicting him of possessing illegal narcotics in Zarqa in September 2019.

The court declared the defendant guilty of possessing 9,500 Captagon pills and 830 grammes of hashish on September 23 with the intent of selling the drugs in the local market and handed him a 15-year prison term.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to 10 years in prison “to give the defendant a second chance in life”.

The court also ordered the defendant to pay JD10,000 in fines.

Court documents said the defendant was in possession of the illegal drugs to sell in the local market.

However, the defendant was arrested by Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) agents who had received a tip-off that he had illegal narcotics in his possession.

Upon searching the defendant’s house, court papers said, the AND personnel found "Captagon pills and hashish blocks on the table of his house". 

The defendant confessed willingly to “buying the illegal narcotics and hiding the pills in his house to sell them to people in his area”, court documents said.

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

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 sentences against the defendant.

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat, Hammad Ghzawi and Qassem Dughmi.