Freed khat importer seeks compensation for time in custody

A Somali man who was cleared by an appeals court of charges of importing illegal drugs - khat leaves not in the schedule of banned substances - is demanding compensation for having spent a year under preventive arrest.

Aweys Maani Khayre was caught with 10 kilos of the leaves in his luggage after disembarking from a London flight in May 2008.

He filed a judicial protest yesterday against the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police, claiming he had suffered huge losses as an effect of being held "uselessly" for such a long time. When he had been charged in court last year, he had admitted wanting to use the khat to celebrate his birthday with family and friends but insisted he was not aware the plant was illegal in Malta.

The plant, Catha edulis, has been chewed by east Africans for hundreds of years and plays a big part in the social lives of both men and women. But it is banned across America, Canada and most of Europe, although legal in Britain.

Defence lawyers José Herrera and Veronique Dalli had argued that, since their client had imported the plant and not the active extract, cathinone and cathine, he was not committing a crime.

Magistrate Miriam Hayman had found him guilty and handed down a six-month prison sentence but by that time he had already served more than the jail term in preventive custody, so he was freed.

He appealed the sentence and last July was acquitted in a landmark ruling that held that prohibited substances that occur naturally in plants could not be deemed automatically illegal.

The court had pointed out that khat was not scheduled as an illegal drug and the fact that the plant could contain two banned substances did not make an importer guilty.

Dr Herrera and Dr Dalli signed the protest.