Man jailed for trafficking cannabis in Paceville

A man who tried to sell cannabis in Paceville has been jailed for a year.

Msida resident Ahmed Al Allagi, 27, from Libya was arrested on 26 September last year after police officers observed him pulling out a sachet of cannabis from his shoe and handing it to an Italian tourist.

The tourist identified Allagi as the person who had given her the drugs but both she and the accused said that money hadn’t exchanged hands at that point.

Allagi was charged with trafficking cannabis in a place frequented by youths and relapsing, as he had been given a suspended sentence for falsification of documents in a separate case.

The arresting officers testified that when the accused had been approached by officers, he had put something in his mouth and swallowed it.

Whilst on bail for this case, he had tested positive for drugs, as attested by his probation officer.

Allagi had testified, denying ever selling drugs. He said that he had bought half a gram of cannabis from a Somali man and had smoked it together with some girls. The girls had offered him money for the joint but he had refused, he claimed.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, presiding the case, examined the salient judgments and legal doctrines about conflicting evidence, circumstantial evidence and levels of proof required in criminal cases.

She said that there was no doubt as to the man’s guilt in this case due to eyewitness accounts, as well as circumstantial and corroborative evidence. However the prosecution’s failure to exhibit evidence of the man’s previous sentence meant that the charge of recidivism was not proven.

The magistrate also observed that the substance handed to the girls had been certified as a small amount of cannabis – 67 grams of less than 5% purity.

The court declared Allagi guilty of trafficking in a place frequented by youths and jailed him for one year, as well as fining him €200.