Man handed 2 years in prison for narcotics possession

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an August State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a man to two years in prison after convicting him of possessing illegal narcotics in Amman in March 2022.

The court declared the defendant guilty of obtaining illegal narcotics for personal use on March 11.

The SSC handed the defendant two years in prison for the offence of possessing illegal narcotics and ordered him to pay JD2,000 in fines.

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

“AND agents searched the suspect and found 500 grammes of hashish and 580 Captagon pills,” the 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”.

The attorney also asserted that his client was young and had no prior criminal record.

“My client is young and should benefit from a reduction in penalty,” the lawyer said, according to court transcripts.

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 higher court added that it had applied the appropriate punishment as stipulated in the law, and “is in no way obliged to reduce the sentence as the lawyer argued”.

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mahmoud Ebtoush, Fawzi Nahar, Mohammad Sharari, Majid Azab and Hayel Amr.