The Ninth Circuit of the Asyut Criminal Court sentenced a defendant to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined him 50,000 Egyptian pounds after convicting him of possessing hashish for sale.[1] The bench was headed by Judge Ahmed Mohamed Halawa with Judges Mohamed Ayman Saddah, Mohamed Samir Al-Tamawy and Ramy Mohamed Samir as members.[1]

Security directorate investigators said the defendant was 41, unemployed and lived in Al-Zawya village in Asyut centre.[1] They said he sold hashish wholesale, semi-wholesale and retail and stored the drug at his home and its outbuildings.[1] Acting on a prosecutor’s arrest and search warrant, officers set an ambush in neighbouring Rifa village and detained him as he arrived riding a tuk-tuk, a three-wheeled vehicle.[1] A search found six hashish slabs in a plastic bag in his cloak pocket and 44 more pieces in the tuk-tuk’s storage box, 50 pieces in total.[1] Police also seized 10,090 Egyptian pounds and a mobile phone, which he said were sale proceeds and a means of contacting customers.[1]

The Asyut forensic medicine chemical laboratory reported that the 50 pieces contained the active substance of hashish, weighing 1,190.99 grams in the first evidence bag and 1,681.78 grams in the second.[1] The First Attorney General for North Asyut referred him in custody to the criminal court after investigators and laboratory reports completed the evidence.[1]