Man wins sharp sentence reduction on appeal

A Libyan man who was originally jailed for 16 years and fined Lm35,000 for dealing in heroin had his jail term reduced to nine years and the fine to Lm11,000 on appeal.

Jurors in the trial of Mohamed Salah Ahmed Shnaina, 40, had found him guilty of dealing in heroin between March 10-13, 1998 by seven votes to two. They also found him guilty of the possession of the drug with the intent to sell and of being in Malta illegally by eight votes to one.

But Shnaina filed an appeal through his lawyers Emanuel Mallia and Giannella Caruana Curran. After evaluating the grounds of appeal, Chief Justice Vincent DeGaetano, Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti and Mr Justice David Scicluna ruled that what worried them was that Shnaina had been found guilty of possession of all the drugs found in his apartment. They noted that Shnaina shared the apartment with two other men, Alaeddine Mohammed Ezghuzi and Khaled Al Rajih, and that a considerable amount of the heroin was found in the pocket of a pair of trousers belonging to Ezghuzi.

The three judges ruled that evidence produced in court did not link the drugs found in Ezghuzi's trousers to Shnaina.

During the trial's summing up, the judge had referred to the report of court expert Mario Mifsud who estimated that the street value of the drugs found in the apartment was of Lm80,000.

The judge had failed to highlight the distinction between the 46.79 grammes of heroin found in Ezghuzi's pocket and the 28.774 grammes hidden in a container in the apartment. In view of this, the judges presiding over the appeal ruled that the punishment handed down was excessive and reduced the jail term by seven years and the fine by Lm24,000.