Thirty-six-year-old from Avgorou was acquitted yesterday by a decision of the Court of Appeals and was released immediately, after the sentence of five months imprisonment imposed on him at first instance was canceled.
The young man was initially convicted by the Larnaca Criminal Court on June 6, after being found guilty of the offenses of importing, possessing and possessing for the purpose of supplying and manufacturing a controlled drug of class B, ie cannabis. He was immediately sentenced to five months in prison, which he served until yesterday.
The young man's lawyers, Savvas Matsas and Katerina Elias, had argued before the Court of Appeals that the Criminal Court had erroneously ignored the testimony that showed that the accused did not have a guilty mind for committing the crimes against him. In other words, he did not know that the cannabis imported from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and in his possession had a tetrahydrocannabinol content of more than 0,2% as indicated on the package containing the Czech chemistry analysis as well as in the online advertisement, according to which the cannabis .
The lawyers noted that the defendant introduced cannabis for therapeutic purposes and not as a psychoactive substance by smoking it.
The Supreme Court, setting aside the first-instance decision, pointed out that the court erroneously considered the appellant unreliable from the outset because he did not report to the Police at the time of his arrest that he possessed the disputed amount of cannabis for therapeutic purposes and for the first time his affidavit at his trial.
The Supreme Court also noted that the trial court had erroneously disregarded the testimony concerning the online advertising of the cannabis in question as well as analyzes received by the accused along with the cannabis and the label on the packaging in which it was inserted, according to whose tetrahydrocannabinol content did not exceed 0,2%.
Source: Liberal