News

Court to rule on heroin case

September 9, 2015 6:12 am

The Ethan Kai and Mohammed Shaheed Khan illicit drugs case has reached the end of the trial today with Judge Justice Thusara Rajasinghe giving his summation.

The High Court case was called in Nadi as the four assesors revisited the facts of the case compiled in the six-week trial.

Judge Justice Thusara Rajasinghe took a little over three hours to articulate his 100-page summation to the assessors in Nadi today.

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The special sitting was called in the Nadi Magistrates Court as the Lautoka High Court has been facing electrical faults over the past few days.

After his summation, the four assesors, two men and two women were excused from the courtroom.

This, to give the Prosecution and the defence the opportnity to redirect certain facts in Justice Rajasinghe’s summation.

For the defence, Ethan Kai’s lead counsel John Peluso asked if Justice Rajasinghe could clarify and emphasise on certain areas of THEIR concerns to the assessors.

At 3.15 this afternoon the assesors were called back into the courtroom and the clarifications as such.

The assessors were then excused from the courtroom to delve on the summation provided to them and come with a verdict.

Khan and Kai are being charged with the illegal importation of illicit drugs namely heroin worth thirty million dollars.

The pair have been remanded in custody at the Natabua Corrections Facility since December last year.

If convicted both face up to ten years imprisonment.