Ten year prison term for drug trafficker

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a February 2017 State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing a man to ten years in prison after convicting him of illicit drug trafficking in October 2016.

The court declared the defendant guilty of attempting to smuggle 180,000 Captagon pills and 43 kilogrammes of hashish from Syria to Jordan and handed him 15 years in prison.

However, the SSC decided to reduce the sentence to ten years “to give the defendant a second chance in life”.

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

Court papers said the defendant wanted to make quick cash and decided with another suspect, who still remains at large, to smuggle illegal narcotics into the Kingdom.

On October 16, the defendant was arrested by border security patrol while attempting to cross from Syria.

“Law enforcement officers found large amounts of illegal narcotics stashed in three big bags with the suspect,” the SSC documents said.

The defendant contested the SSC’s ruling charging that “he was subjected to torture and duress in order to confess to something he did not do”.

However, the higher court disregarded his claims because there was no proof and ruled that the SSC followed the proper proceedings when sentencing the defendant. 

The Court of Cassation judges comprised Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zubi, Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat and Majid Azab.