19/04/2007 16:00:00
Cyprus: Drug dealers to serve double time after appealing sentence
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TWO DRUG dealers who appealed to the Supreme Court over their sentences
have had their jail-time doubled after the three-judge panel ruled
against their request.
The two appellants, Mahmoud Gate Elgathi and Mohammed Ali Ahmad, both
from Palestine, had taken their case to the Supreme Court after claiming
that the judge who had sentenced them did not sentence them from the day
they were kept in police custody.
Their appeal was countered by the Attorney-general’s office who also
appealed the judge’s decision arguing that the men’s sentencing “did not
satisfy the cause of justice”.
A legal source yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that “had the two men just
kept quiet, they would have gotten out next month. Instead, the
prosecution decided to appeal when they appealed and they are now
looking at another year behind bars”.
On Wednesday, Supreme Court Judges Petros Artemis, Michalis Fotiou and
Myron Nicolatos, ruled in favour of the Attorney-general’s appeal while
at the same time rejecting the claim from the two convicts.
The judges doubled both men’s sentences from 15 months to 30 months,
meaning that Elgathi and Ahmad will spend at least another year behind
bars. The two would have been eligible for parole next month.
They had been found guilty on eight counts of illegal possession of 180
grams of cannabis with intent to sell after being placed in remand on
November 25, 2005.
During the trial, the court had heard that the two men had tried to sell
the drugs to an undercover police officer of the Cyprus Drug Squad (YKAN).
Under Cyprus law and depending on the seriousness of the offence, a
judge is obliged to begin sentencing from the day that defendants have
been detained in police custody throughout the duration of their trial
or whilst they are waiting for sentencing.
However, if the judge deems it necessary to start sentencing on the same
day of ruling – because of the gravity of the offence – then he or she
must show cause in its final ruling.
According to the initial court decision against the two men, the judge
in the trial sentenced them to 15 months imprisonment without specifying
when their sentence should begin.
Elgathi and Ahmad appealed saying that the judge’s decision implied
their sentences begins from the day of sentencing which was January 12
this year.
“With regards to the case in question, the judge noted that the two
defendants had been detained in police but ruled that the time that they
had spent in police custody could not be deemed as time served,” said
the judges.
“After jailing them for the eight charges, the judge ordered the
sentences to run concurrently but did not specify that the sentences
should start from January 12, 2007. Therefore, the provisions of article
117 of chapter 155 stand and the sentences begin from November 25, 2005.”
Elgathi and Ahmad’s appeal was then rejected with the Supreme Court
stating that the judge at no time ordered the two men to begin their
sentence after being found guilty.
The judges then examined the appeal from the Attorney-general’s office
and concurred with the state saying that the court sentence of both the
men was “insufficient”.
The judges then doubled the sentences of 15 months to 30 months
imprisonment.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=31906&cat_id=1
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Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12464
Author:
Cyprus Mail via UKCIA
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