A DRUGS dealer, who sold an assortment of narcotics to a Saudi man who later died from a heroin overdose, has lost his final appeal against a 15-year jail sentence at the Cassation Court.
Case files state that the Bahraini brazenly peddled his drugs ‘hunting’ and ‘ensnaring’ customers by stopping them on the street and offering them his illicit merchandise.
Last year, he was found guilty of possessing and trading in hashish, heroin and methamphetamine, a potent central nervous system stimulant, and was fined BD10,000 on top of the jail time. In the original High Criminal Court case, the appellant was tried alongside the victim’s friend.
The Saudi man had described how he found his buddy’s lifeless body in their shared apartment in Hoora after they had consumed heroin together the previous night.
“Me and my friend bought drugs from the defendant, then went to our place and slept after both taking some of the drugs we purchased,” he told the Public Prosecution after being arrested.
“When I woke up, I found that my friend wasn’t moving, and that his body was cold.”
After reporting the death to the authorities, the fellow Saudi was apprehended on suspicion of possessing and using morphine, hashish, alprazolam (Xanax) and pregabalin (Lyrica).
The court convicted him of the charge last year, sentencing him to a year in prison, fining him BD1,000, and banning him from entering Bahrain for three years after completing his sentence.
A team of police and forensic experts were despatched to the apartment, where the man overdosed and died, and reportedly found traces of heroin in the room.
A medical examiner, who conducted an autopsy on him confirmed that he had died of heroin toxicity, and stated that traces of hashish, morphine and Xanax were also found in his blood.
Similarly, a test of the deceased man’s friend’s urine sample revealed traces of hashish, morphine, Xanax and Lyrica, all of which he claimed were sold by the Bahraini man.
Meanwhile, following the grieving friend’s report, the appellant was placed under investigation with police informants managing to pinpoint his location.
“The appellant has previously been found guilty on drug-related charges, and had in the past been involved in a similar death-by-overdose incident,” read the verdict.
Upon appealing the High Criminal Court’s 15-year jail term, the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court ruled to uphold the convict’s guilt and sentence.
The Cassation Court decided to dismiss the appeal because it found that it was baseless, and stated in its ruling that the defence had brought nothing new to the table when the second appeal was lodged.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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