Drug smuggler loses plea

Manama 

The First Supreme Criminal Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the verdict announced by the First High Criminal Court last year against an Asian man who attempted to smuggle narcotics into the Kingdom by hiding it in his shoes. The man was sentenced to five years imprisonment, deportation and to pay a BD3,000 fine for the charges.

Court files show that the man was arrested at Bahrain International Airport airport, after 2,231 narcotic pills were detected in his shoes and luggage. More pills were also found “professionally stashed” in the man’s headphones and mobile phone charger. The investigations of the Anti-Narcotics Department within the Interior Ministry proved that the detected pills contain methamphetamine and that the man was planning to hand it over to unknown individuals here in return for certain amounts.

The case was referred to the Public Prosecution, which interrogated the suspect in July last year. During the interrogation, the defendant confessed to the crime, adding that he brought the narcotics from Bangladesh so he could consume it along with a friend, who would allegedly pay him BD500 for it. The defendant filed an appeal against the previously announced verdict hoping that the judges would reduce it. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal rejected his request and upheld the sentence.