Thursday, November 8, 2007

Man on trial for drug smuggling, possession

| DATE: 2007-11-07 |

MALE, November 7, 2007 (Haveeru News Service) -- The trial of a man who had collaborated with a foreigner to smuggle drugs into the country has begun.

Ahmed Ashraf of M. Naalny is facing charges of collaborating with a Sri Lankan resident, Dinesh Godvin Jesudasan, to smuggle illegal narcotic drugs into the country and drug possession with intent to sell.

At the trial it was revealed that Dinesh had smuggled 182.7g of heroin in 13 bullets into the country to hand over to Ashraf. During the operation the Police had conducted to find Ashraf they had found that Dinesh’s mobile phone had been used to set up a meeting with Ashraf and that they had both met at the Artificial Beach in Male to exchange the drugs. The Police presented their evidence in the form of audio and video recordings.

Ashraf’s lawyer argued that despite the evidence Ashraf could not be charged with possession of drugs and that since Dinesh was a Buddhist his testimony was invalid and could not be accepted.

“And where is Dinesh?” Ashraf’s lawyer asked. “In such a huge case why is he not here at the trial? And another thing: The leader of the Police team in charge of the operation said that they had used fake drug bullets during the operation. So how can we accept the testimonies of those who are lower on the chain of command?”

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