Cassation Court upholds 4 years prison term for drug dealer

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an August State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a drug dealer to over two years in prison after convicting him of possessing illegal narcotics in January 2023.

The court declared the defendant guilty of obtaining illegal narcotics with the intent of selling the drugs in the local market.

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 JD2,000 and the prison term to 30 months in prison to give the defendant a second chance in life.

Court documents said an Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) patrol was stationed in an area in Amman.

The patrol officers decided to pull over the defendant for a regular inspection, court papers added.

“The AND officers found 1.290 kilogrammes of Hashish and 390 Captagon pills in the defendant’s vehicle,” 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 sentence against the defendant.

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

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