LI Network
Qatar Highest Court the Court of Cassation has accepted a Plea filed by Mumbai couple and withheld its verdict against them as well as ordered a review of their case by the appeal court.
The Mumbai Couple was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in the year 2019 on the allegation of carrying over 4.1 kg of hashish.
Mr. Mohammad Shareeq and Mrs. Oniba Quershi were on their second honeymoon at Doha. They were reluctant to visit Qatar but they had gone ahead with the trip since their sponsor, Ms. Tabassum Riyaz Quershi, Mr. Shareeq’s aunt had insisted for them to go.
Ms. Tabassum had handed them a bag right at the last moment claiming that it was filled with tobacco and requested them to deliver it to a friend of hers at Qatar.
Mrs. Oniba’s mother, Parveen stated that “The two weren’t aware that the bag consisted of 4.1 kilograms of hashish.”
The couple landed in Qatar at the Hammad International Airport and drugs were found inside their luggage by authorities. After this, they were both taken into official custody and arrested.
They were convicted and given jail time for 10 years along with an imposition of around 300,000 Riyals for each of them by a criminal Qatar court in November 2019.
In accordance, an appeal was filed to an appeal court by the couple in Qatar and it was accepted on the 27th of January in 2020. The court gave a verdict against their favour subsequent to this.
After this, they moved the Court of Cassation, the highest judicial court of Qatar, to appeal once again. The court finished reviewing their case’s documents and listened to the report given by the appointed justice along with pleadings.
It gave the order that “The verdict hasn’t replied for the defence supported with the documents as they hadn’t criminal intent as they were not knowing that the captured matters as narcotics and they were cheated by one of their relatives. This makes the verdict defective and worth a challenge.”
It passed the order for the case to be reviewed. It had read, “The court has ruled to accept the challenge formally and in the subject to re-consider the challenged verdict and return the case to the appeal court in order to rule with a new judgment under a different bench.”
Parveen gave the statement that she was relieved by the given order and that she hoped she would finally get to see her daughter along with her son-in-law very soon. Ms. Oniba had given birth to a baby girl while imprisoned at a Qatar jail.