Cassation Court upholds over 7-year sentence for drug dealer

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a July 2023 State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing a man to over seven years in prison after convicting him of possessing illegal narcotics in February 2022 in Aqaba.

The court declared the defendant guilty of possessing illegal narcotics to sell in the local market.

The SSC handed the defendant a 15-year prison term for the charges and ordered him to pay JD10,000 in fines.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to seven-and-a-half years in prison and reduced the fine to JD7,500 “to give the defendant a second chance in life”.

Court documents said the Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) received a tip that the defendant had stashed a variety of illegal narcotics to sell in the local market.

 The defendant was placed under surveillance by the police officers, the court added.

The law-enforcement agency officers decided to raid the victim’s home and arrested him without any major incident, the court added. 

 “Police found 9,900 Captagon pills and over three kilogrammes of Hashish” court papers added. 

The defendant contested the SSC’s ruling through his lawyer, who argued that his client should get a lesser punishment because he possessed the illegal drugs for personal use. 

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.

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

In addition, the higher court stated that the amount found in the defendant’s possession is a lot “and it is unbelievable to the court that he possessed all this amount for his personal use”.

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