A Maldivian man who received drugs via FedEx courier service has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
A Maldivian man who received drugs via FedEx courier service has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Criminal Court on Sunday passed this sentence on Sharuvaan Saleem of Gibraltar, Hithadhoo on charges of drug trafficking.
Sharuvaan was charged with drug trafficking after he went to receive a package brought in in another person's name which contained a packet of drugs.
The package was brought in on a Fly Dubai flight. With Customs finding suspicious contents during their scan of the package, they handed it over to the Police. Police then ran an operation at the FedEx offices in order to see who came to receive the package.
Police intervened and stopped a man by the name of Mohamed Shiyah Ali who went to receive the package as he was leaving the FedEx offices.
Shiyah claimed he had gone to receive the package on request of a person called 'Sana', and made a phone call to them. Shiyah requested 'Sana' to come to a specific location to receive the package.
The person who came to the location, where Police was waiting with Shiyah, to receive the package was Sharuvaan.
Police stopped Sharuvaan as he was about to leave on his motorcycle with the package. Police found two rubber packets of drugs once the package was inspected, of total 989.1 grams in weight.
Sharuvaan denied the charges in court. He claimed that he had no motive to bring in a package with drugs and stated he had no involvement in it.
The Court's verdict, however, reads that the State has proven the case against him. Hence, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison (life imprisonment).
The court said that as there is no evidence of drugs having been sold, and because large amounts of money was not found on Sharuvaan, they would levy the lowest fine applicable in such cases on him. As such, Sharuvaan was fined by MVR 100,000.
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