Cassation Court upholds over three-year sentence for drug dealer

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an August State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a man to over three years in prison after convicting him of handing over Hashish to an undercover agent in Amman in February 2022.

The court declared the defendant guilty of obtaining illegal narcotics with the intent of selling the drugs to an undercover agent in Jabal Husseini on February 15.

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) received a tip that the defendant had illegal narcotics and instructed one of its agents to contact him.

“The undercover AND agent got in touch with the defendant and asked him for a small stash of illegal drugs in return for JD10,” court documents said.

When the two met, the defendant handed the AND agent the illegal drugs and left, court papers added.

The defendant was arrested by the law enforcement officers one month later and upon searching his home they found 12 Captagon pills and a small quantity of Hashish in the house, the court stated.

The defendant contested the SSC’s ruling through his lawyer, who argued that his client “possessed the illegal narcotics for personal use”.

Therefore, the lawyer added, “my client deserves a lesser punishment for possessing illegal drugs”.

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 to sell in the local market,” the higher court said.

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