A Danish man was arrested on 8 January this year with 2 bags containing 32kgs of khat ‘mairungi’ and 10 bundles of fresh khat wrapped in the bags at the screening point at Entebbe International Airport has been sentenced to 22 years in a local jail.
Mr Petersen Deleuran Schotz Kasper was checking in to fly back to his country through Rwanda aboard Rwandair was found possessing narcotic drugs.
The chief magistrate’s sitting in Entebbe sentenced the 27year old Danish on two accounts of possession of khat, a Narcotics substance and trafficking of Narcotics.
The Danish man pleaded guilty to the offences before court in Entebbe, “I had the substances but I didn’t know they are regarded as drugs,” said Petersen.
The Danish man who begged for mercy told court that he got the substances from a Somalis man and thought the drugs were some kind of tea.
“I thought it was tea, I had never seen it before, I met a Somali man in Kampala and he told me the two bags contained tea and I was to deliver them to a Somali national in Copenhagen Denmark,” he said adding that “When I opened the bag, I saw the leaves and I believed it was tea,” Petersen pleaded.
As the saying goes, however ignorance is no defense.
Consequently, Her Worship Mary Kaitesi while delivering her judgment said that although Petersen was a first offender, hadn’t wasted courts time, lacked knowledge of the seriousness of the offence and victim of circumstance the fact is that he was found with the substance.
Kaitesi however gave Petersen an option of paying Shs20 million or else face jail for 22 years on the both counts possession and trafficking of narcotics.
What the law says
Under the 2016 narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances control act 2016, Count 1 of possession of narcotic drugs attracts a sentence of 25years or a fine 3 times the value of the drugs found with a person and count two of trafficking attracts life imprisonment or a fine 3 times the market value of the drugs.
