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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Cyprus: Drug dealers to serve double time after appealing sentence
John Leonidou Cyprus Mail
Friday 20 Apr 2007 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 -- LCA on Myspace; http://www.myspace.com/cannabis_people_uk
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