HKSAR v. Azam Sher
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DCCC 162/2013 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION CRIMINAL CASE NO. 162 OF 2013 -----------------------------------
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---------------------------- Reasons for Sentence ---------------------------- 1.The defendant pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs. Particulars of the charge are that the defendant on 20th December 2012 outside 137 Lockhart Road, Wanchai, trafficked in a 26.11g solid which contained 17.96g of ketamine. Summary of Facts 2.The defendant was intercepted by plainclothes Police officers patrolling in the vicinity of Lockhart Road in Wanchai at around 6pm on the charge date. Upon search, one transparent plastic bag containing white powder wrapped by a piece of tissue was found in the cap that the defendant was wearing. 3.The defendant was arrested and brought back to Wanchai Police station for further investigation. A video recorded interview was conducted the following day in the presence of a Pushto interpreter and an English interpreter. The defendant exercised his right and remained silent. 4.Government chemist examined and analyzed the powder found on the defendant and confirmed the solid contained 17.96g of ketamine. 5.The defendant admitted to paragraph 5 of the amended summary of facts in court, which states that the defendant possessed the ketamine for the purpose of trafficking. The street value of the dangerous drugs seized is approximately $3,276. The defendant had $71.80 cash on his person at the time of his arrest. Previous convictions 6.The defendant has 7 previous convictions, of which 2 were for possession of dangerous drugs back in 2008. The rest included using an identity card relating to another person, theft and indecency in public, which was his last conviction on 2nd November 2012 when he was sentenced to 7 days’ imprisonment. The defendant committed the present offence on 20th December 2012. Mitigation 7.Apart from the fact that the defendant was educated up to matriculation level in Pakistan, the rest of the antecedent statement is correct. 8.The defendant is 25 years old and a street sleeper. He came to Hong Kong illegally 5 years ago. He applied for political asylum on the basis of being tortured back in Pakistan, and was allowed to stay in Hong Kong since 2008, on condition that he cannot work in Hong Kong. The defendant therefore has no money and has always been in financial difficulty. The defendant’s family and siblings are all in Pakistan, where he had worked as a taxi driver before. 9.This is the defendant’s first trafficking in dangerous drugs conviction, although he did have previous possession of dangerous drugs records. In 2011, the defendant committed a string of thefts and had been convicted. That was due to his financial problem living in Hong Kong. For the present offence, he committed it out of the need to earn some money. The defendant used to receive a subsidy of $1,000 towards the rental and that there was food provided for him. The defendant stopped taking this subsidy about 4 to 5 months ago since he considered it not enough anyway and he did not feel like receiving the money anymore. 10.The defendant had been cooperative with the Police. Pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. The defendant seeks the court’s mercy. He is not fluent in English, he will find it difficult to deal with life in jail, even though this would not be his first time being imprisoned in Hong Kong. Sentence 11.The sentencing tariff for trafficking in between 10 to 50g of ketamine is imprisonment of between 4 to 6 years. 12.Having heard from the defendant’s legal representative, while I fully sympathize with the defendant’s plight in coming to Hong Kong to seek political asylum, I find that there is nothing in mitigation that would allow me to depart from the sentencing tariff. 13.For 17.96g of ketamine, I adopt a starting point of 51 months’ imprisonment, giving the defendant the full one-third discount for his guilty plea, I sentence him to 34 months’ imprisonment.
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