Danish man jailed 12 years for narcotics

ENTEBBE:

The chief magistrate’s court in Entebbe has sentenced a 27-year old Danish national to 12 years and 10 years in jail or pay fines for two counts of trafficking narcotic and being in possession of khat (mairunji), a narcotic substance.

Petersen Deleuran Schotz Kasper was convicted on his own plea of guilt.

“Yes, I had the them but I didn’t know it was a drug. I thought it was tea, I had never seen it before. I met a Somali man at KFC in Kampala and he told me the two bags contained tea and I was to deliver them to a Somali national named Abdi in Copenhagen Denmark. I opened the bag and saw the leaves and I believed it was tea,” Petersen said.

The magistrate Mary Kaitesi noted that Petersen was a first offender, hadn’t wasted court’s time by pleading guilty and lacked knowledge of the gravity of the offence was therefore a victim of circumstance, but added that since was found in possession of the prohibited substance, he would not escape liability for trafficking the khat ‘mairungi’.

On the first count of possession of narcotics magistrate Kaitesi sentenced Petersen to a fine of Shs6m or spend 10 years in prison. He was also fined Shs10m on the second charge of trafficking narcotics or stay 12 years in jail.

The sentences will run concurrently.
Under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act 2016, possession of narcotic drugs attracts a sentence of up to 25 years or a fine three times the value of the drugs found with the culprit.

Trafficking narcotics attracts up to life imprisonment on conviction or a fine three times the market value of the drugs found with.

Petersen was arrested on January 8, this year with two bags containing 32kg of khat and 10 bundles of wrapped fresh khat at Entebbe Airport as he was checking in to fly back to Denmark through Kigali aboard Rwandair.