Mohin Uddin, a Bangladeshi national, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the possession of drugs exceeding 2.6 kg. He was detained in November 2017, with a box containing cannabis, while on a motorbike driven by a Maldivian national. Both individuals were charged and prosecuted.
The Criminal Court ruled that, while he claimed that the drugs belonged to the Maldivian national who drove the motorbike, the Bangladeshi national could not produce any such proof. The drugs were found in a box in his possession and were under his care, the judgment noted.
The Maldivian national, however, was found not guilty. While the Bangladeshi national had, according to witnesses, met the Maldivian national at a jetty, there was no evidence of a prior relationship between the two men, the judgment read.
The Bangladeshi national is sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of MVR100,000 within three months, the verdict read by Judge Ali Adam said. He will serve 19 years of his prison sentence, after deducting time already spent in custody.
