Man handed 1 year in prison for narcotics possession

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a July 2022 State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a man to one year in prison after convicting him of possessing illegal narcotics in Aqaba in May 2022.

The court declared the defendant guilty of obtaining illegal narcotics (crystal meth and hashish) for personal use on May 23.

The SSC gave the defendant a one-year prison term for the offence of possessing illegal narcotics and ordered him to pay a fine of JD1,000.

Court documents said the Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) learned the defendant was in possession of illegal narcotics and placed him under surveillance.

“The AND agents arrested the defendant while at his home and found a small stash of crystal meth and hashish in his possession,” the court documents said.

Crystal meth is the common name for crystal methamphetamine, a strong and highly addictive drug that affects the central nervous system, according to WebMD, a website for health information.

The defendant contested the SSC’s ruling through his lawyer, who argued that the court “handed the defendant a harsh punishment”.

“My client confessed to possessing the illegal narcotics for personal use but the court did not take this into consideration and did not lower his punishment to give him a second chance in life,” the lawyer argued.

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.

In addition, the higher court ruled that “reducing punishment is not within the Court of Cassation’s jurisdiction. The court that sentenced a defendant has the sole authority to reduce a punishment.”

The Court of Cassation judges presiding were Mahmoud Ebtoush, Hayel Amr, Majid Azab, Fawzi Nahar and Mohammad Khashashneh.

In early September, AND announced figures of drug-related cases for the month of August which stated that 1,094 individuals were arrested in 636 drug-related cases.

The seized illegal narcotics, according to AND, included 224 kilogrammes of hashish, half a million Captagon pills, 4,000 unspecified narcotic tablets, 7.4 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, 13 kilogrammes of marijuana, 2 kilogrammes of synthetic cannabis and 600 grammes of synthetic cannabis powder.

The Kingdom saw 5,295 cases of drug trafficking in 2022, according to a report prepared by the Criminal Information Department (CID), affiliated with the Public Security Directorate (PSD).

The report also stated that in 2022, the Kingdom witnessed an illicit drug crime every 28 minutes.

Amman registered the highest number of drug crime cases at 7,260 incidents, followed by the Central Region at 4,212 cases and the Northern Region at 3,836 cases, according to the CID report.

In September 2022, the PSD announced that the department’s anti-drug operations would continue “until the issue is eliminated”.

During a visit to the Anti-Narcotics Department, PSD Director Maj. Gen. Obaidallah Maaytah said that combating drugs has become an issue of national concern and a responsibility for all Jordanians, stressing that efforts to arrest drug dealers “will never stop”.