Death penalty for drug smugglers

The First High Criminal Court yesterday sentenced two defendants to death after finding them guilty of smuggling 68 kilograms of hashish from Iran through the sea. Without revealing further information on the defendants’ age or nationalities, Muharraq Governorate Chief Prosecutor Adnan Mattar confirmed that three individuals were involved in the case. He explained in a statement issued here yesterday that the court ordered to impose the capital punishment on two of the defendants and to fine them BD10,000 each, while the third defendant was fined BD13,000.

“The details of the incident were initiated when the Public Prosecution received a report from the Anti-Narcotics Department in Interior Ministry, informing that a network that smuggles and promotes narcotic substances in the country, with the purpose of selling, was detected,” Mr Mattar said in the statement. He explained further: “The department was also informed that the network is working to bring in further quantities of narcotic substances in co-ordination with an Iranian citizen, who supplies them at the borders of the territorial waters of the Kingdom.”

The official said the defendants were caught in the middle of the sea as a result of co-ordination between Interior Ministry’s Police Aviation and Coast Guard Command. Sixty-eight one-kilo blocks of hashish were detected in the possession of the defendants. The Public Prosecution had earlier accused the defendants of smuggling drugs with the intention of selling and referred the case to the First Criminal Court, which announced its sentence yesterday.

Drug smugglers are frequently detected in Bahrain’s territorial waters while coming from Iran. On February 19 this year, the Interior Ministry announced the arrest of five drug traffickers who were attempting to traffic more than BD1.6 million worth of Hashish, Marijuana and Shabu from Iran through sea.