AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a May 2022 State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a man to 20 months in prison after convicting him of planting marijuana at his house in Aqaba in January 2022.

 

The court declared the defendant guilty of planting marijuana and possessing a small quantity of illegal narcotics on Jan. 20.

 

The SSC sentenced him to one year and eight months in prison and ordered him to pay a JD1,500 fine.

 

Court documents said the Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) learnt the defendant was planting and possessing illegal narcotics at his home in Aqaba.

 

“The AND agents raided his home and found marijuana plants and small quantities of hashish and Crystal meth,” court documents said.

 

The defendant confessed that he planted the marijuana and possessed the illegal narcotics for his personal use, the court papers added.

 

The defendant contested the SSC’s ruling through his lawyer, who argued that “my client had no previous criminal record and had expressed his regret to the court”.

 

The lawyer argued that his client should have “been pardoned by the court because this was his first drug-related case”.

 

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 sentences against the defendant.

 

“It was clear to the court that the defendant confessed willingly to planting and possessing the illegal drugs for his personal use,” the higher court said.

 

Therefore, the higher court maintained that the defendant deserves the punishment he received from the SSC.

 

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Majid Azab, Hayel Amr, Fawzi Nahar and Ibrahim Abu Shamma.