Two get jail terms for drug possession

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a January State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing two men to prison terms ranging from 10 to five years after convicting them of possessing illegal narcotics in Amman in February 2019.

The court declared the defendants guilty of possessing 91,350 Captagon pills with the intent of selling it and handed them the maximum sentences.

However, the SSC decided to reduce their prison term to half to “give them a second chance in life”.

The SSC also ordered the defendants to pay fines of up to JD10,000.

Court documents said one of the defendants was in possession of the illegal drugs and asked the second defendant to help him sell it.

However, the defendants were arrested by Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) agents, who had received a tip-off that one of the defendants was in possession of illegal narcotics.

“The defendants resisted arrest and attempted to flee from the house but were subdued by the AND officers,” the court transcripts said.

Upon searching the defendant’s house in an eastern neighbourhood of Amman, court papers said, the AND personnel found "Captagon pills hidden in a tyre that was kept in his basement". 

The defendant confessed willingly to “buying the illegal narcotics and hiding the pills in his house to sell them to another drug dealer for JD2,000”, court documents said.

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

“The court relied on weak and contradictory evidence and one of our clients was subjected to duress in order to confess to a crime that he did not commit,” the lawyers argued.

Meanwhile, the SSC prosecution office asked the higher court to uphold the sentences and the fines imposed on the defendants.

The higher court maintained that the SSC had followed the proper procedures in the issuance of the sentences.

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

The Court of Cassation judges presiding were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Yassin Abdullat, Hammad Ghzawi and Rizeq Abul Fool.