Ammon News - The Court of Cassation has overturned a November 2019 State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a man to seven years in prison after convicting him of possessing illegal narcotics in Mafraq in September 2019.

The court declared the defendant guilty of possessing illegal medical pills in his car on September 27 and handed him the maximum punishment.

The court also convicted the defendant of infiltrating the borders illegally and handed him a six-month prison term.

The court also ordered the defendant to pay JD5,000 in fines.

However, the higher court ruled that the defendant should benefit from a Royal amnesty that was issued few years back and overturned the verdict.

Instead, the higher court ordered the defendant to be immediately released since he already spent his time for the infiltration charge.

Court documents said the defendant wanted to make extra cash and decided to obtain illegal drug pills to sell in the market.

“The defendant crossed the Jordanian-Syrian borders illegally few months before being caught in an attempt to buy hashish but was unable to obtain the illegal drug,” court papers said.

Instead, the court maintained, the defendant purchased thousands of illegal pills from a Syrian man and stashed it in his vehicle.

However, the defendant was arrested by Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) agents in September after receiving a tip-off that he had illegal narcotics in his possession.

Upon searching his vehicle, court papers said, the AND personnel found "the pills hidden in his vehicle".

The defendant confessed willingly to “buying the illegal narcotics and stashing the pills in his vehicle to sell them at a later stage in the local market,” court documents said.

The higher court maintained that the SSC had followed the proper procedures in issuing the sentences against the defendant.

The Court of Cassation judges presiding were Mohammad Ibrahim, Nayef Samarat, Mohammad Khashashneh, Hayel Amr and Fawzi Nahar.