HKSAR v. SAYULA RASHID PAUL

HCCC295/2009

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 295 OF 2009

----------------------

----------------------

 ---------------------------------------------------------

Transcript of the Audio Recording
of the Sentence in the above Case

---------------------------------------------------------

COURT:  Mr Sayula, you appear in this court today to be sentenced following your committal after your plea of guilty in the Magistrates’ Court.

     In this court you have confirmed, as the basis of this court accepting your plea of guilty and convicting you and then passing sentence upon you, the Summary of Facts that you accepted earlier in the Magistrates’ Court.

     The single charge that you face is one of unlawful trafficking in a dangerous drug, namely 2,214.59 grammes of a mixture containing 1,536.71 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.

     I turn then to the facts.  On arrival at Hong Kong International Airport on a flight from Kathmandu in Nepal in the early morning of 18 February 2009, you were detained in the Customs Arrival Hall.  Although no unlawful substance was found in your baggage or upon your person, the suspicions of the Customs authorities were aroused by your inability to explain the purpose of your visit from Tanzania, of which country you are a resident, to Nepal.

     They suspected that you had ingested dangerous drugs.  As a result, you were detained in the custodial ward of Queen Elizabeth Hospital for examination.  X-ray examination revealed the presence of foreign objects inside your body.  You were detained there until you discharged those objects.  In the result, you discharged 175 pellets containing heroin hydrochloride.

     Having been cautioned for the offence of unlawful trafficking in a dangerous drug, you remained silent.

     I turn then to your circumstances and mitigation.  You are a citizen of Tanzania, having been born in that country.  You are a married man of 38 years of age, and you have three young children.  You have no criminal convictions in Hong Kong, and, Mr Donald tells me, none in Tanzania either.

     I am told that you came to be tempted to traffic in dangerous drugs in return for the promise of the payment of US$5,000 as a result of the lorry which you drive and thereby earn your living having been burnt in a fire in 2008.

     The court accepts as mitigation that Mr Donald has realistically advanced first and foremost the fact that you pleaded guilty at the earliest stage.  The court is prepared to accept that you have no criminal record anywhere.  On the other hand, it is clear that you have come a long way in order to traffic dangerous drugs into Hong Kong.

     The guidelines articulated by the Court of Appeal in HKSAR v Abdallah (2009) 2 HKLR 437 supplement those set out in Lau Tak Ming.  However, they are not applicable in your case, given that you committed the offence to which you have pleaded guilty before the judgment in Abdallah, which was delivered on 12 March 2009.

     It is an aggravating factor, and one that the court takes into account, that the circumstances of the commission of this offence occurred by your importing into Hong Kong from outside Hong Kong the drugs in question.

     Having regard to all the circumstances, I take a starting point of 24 years’ imprisonment.

     I turn then to the discount to be afforded to you.  For your plea of guilty at the earliest stage, you are entitled to a discount of one-third of that taken as a starting point.

     Accordingly, the sentence imposed upon you is one of 16 years’ imprisonment.