HKSAR v. ISIHAKA ASHA ZAHOR

HCCC 414/2014

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO 414 OF 2014

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Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case
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COURT: Defendant, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug contrary to section (4)(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.

You have admitted that on 29 March 2014, upon arrival to Hong Kong from Tanzania at the Hong Kong International Airport, you unlawfully trafficked in 696.44 grammes of a mixture containing 396.44 grammes heroin hydrochloride, and 72.51 grammes of 6 monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride.

On that day, you arrived on a flight from Zanzibar via Nairobi to Hong Kong at about 7.35 pm. You were refused entry to Hong Kong, and referred by an Immigration Officer to Customs Clearance at the Customs Arrival Hall. Your baggage and your person was searched which yielded a nil result.

Suspecting that you were concealing drugs in your body, you were sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for medical examination. A preliminary check confirmed the presence of foreign objects inside your body cavity.

At that time, you were arrested and cautioned by a police officer for the offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug. Under caution, you admitted that you had 40 pellets of drug inside your body and you had received US$7,000 as a reward.

Upon admission to the Custodial ward of the hospital, you subsequently discharged 57 pellets containing the dangerous drugs.

The estimated street value of the dangerous drugs was approximately HK$544,606.

Defendant, your counsel, Mr Chan Pak-hong has mitigated fully and thoroughly on your behalf, and I have taken into account all that he has had to say.

I have also taken into account the very detailed heartfelt letter you have written to this court setting out your background and the reason why you committed this offence.

You are Tanzanian and 37 years of age, a widow with six children aged between 8 and 23. You are of clear criminal record.

This is, once again, sadly a case where I have heard on many occasions, defendant, people like you who are facing harsh lives in Africa, having to support your children with very little or no income. You were a hawker in your home country, Tanzania, earning a very small sum of some HK$45 a month, you say. Your children, two youngest, had medical issues and thus you had a heavy burden to supply them with medication.

As your husband died 4 years ago, you were left as the sole breadwinner. You also had to look after your aged ill mother, and most recently had to seek new accommodation and pay rent. You frankly admitted that you committed this offence as you were eager to make quick fast money out of your greed and selfishness. You were offered a handsome sum of some US$7,000 had this delivery been successful.

It appears to me, if your letter is sincere, that you have learnt a very good lesson, and you did not realise that the repercussion would cost you such pain to yourself and your family.

I accept your early admission to the offence upon your arrest and upon your first appearance in the Magistrates’ Court.

As Mr Chan has informed me, he has advised you that there are tariff guidelines for sentence for trafficking in dangerous drugs set down by the Court of Appeal in Hong Kong.

The drugs that you were trafficking in were that of heroin. The drug of monoacetylmorphine hydrochloride is also considered as the same as heroin and the same tariff applies.

In those circumstances, the case of R v Lau Tak Ming is appropriate when considering the appropriate sentence.

The total amount of drugs of heroin that you were trafficking in amounted to 468.95 grammes. That falls within the last bracket of Lau Tak Ming, that is between an amount of 400 to 600 grammes, a starting point after trial is one between 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment.

Defendant, given the quantity of drugs involved in the present case, had you been convicted after trial, an appropriate sentence would be one of 16 years’ imprisonment. In the present case there is an aggravating factor, as laid down Abdallah Anwar Abbas, you had attempted to bring these drugs into Hong Kong from abroad, there was an international element involved which calls for an enhancement of sentence.

Given the recent case of Chan, the Court of Appeal laid down various guidelines as to the enhancement to be involved.

In view of the quantity of drugs that you were bringing in, I enhance the sentence by 10 months’ imprisonment for the international element. That means the sentencing point for your sentence is one of 16 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.

Giving you full credit for your plea of guilty, and the other factors in this case, defendant, a full discount of one-third will be given to the sentence, and you shall be sentenced to 11 years and 3 months’ imprisonment which you shall so serve.