Two years jail, fine for helping addict get drugs

A Libyan who had helped a drug addict get Lm300 worth of cannabis because the drug was difficult to find has been jailed for two years and fined €3,000.

In April 2005, 33-year-old Akram Salem Ossta was caught leaving the house of the man he had just sold the cannabis to with Lm300 in cash after the police were tipped off about a drug deal.

Officers stopped him and then searched the house he had just come out of. There they found his client, John Gerada, sleeping upstairs. Hs wife and their seven-year-old daughter were downstairs. The police noticed the girl standing on a chair and after they removed the cushion they found 250 grammes of cannabis hidden underneath.

Mr Gerada told the police he had asked Mr Salem Ossta to buy cannabis for him as it was hard to find and was very expensive. He instructed his wife to pay him Lm300. On her arraignment a few days after the arrest in 2005, Mrs Gerada admitted to being in possession of the drug and was placed under probation for two years. Her husband pleaded not guilty and was later jailed for a month, which was changed to a period of probation by an appeals court.

The court heard that Mr Gerada had never bought drugs from Mr Salem Ossta before and was not even sure whether he sold drugs but he decided to ask him anyway.

Mr Salem Ossta always denied taking the drugs to the house and said that the money the police found in his possession was for plastering work he had carried out at the Geradas' house. Magistrate Giovanni Grixti said he was convinced that this was his "first adventure" dabbling in drugs and this experiment immediately got him into trouble.

The court found him guilty of trafficking and possession of the drug but not guilty of conspiring to import the drug.