Guilty of drug trafficking

After 12 hours of deliberation, jurors in a five-day trial yesterday found a Libyan guilty of dealing in heroin and cannabis.

Jurors found Mahmud Ali Amber guilty of conspiring to deal in the drugs, importing heroin and trafficking in cannabis by six votes to three.

Mr Amber had been charged with dealing in the drugs and importing heroin on April 10, 2000 and January 31, 2001 but jurors only found him guilty for the January 2001 incident.

After the verdict was read out, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono heard submissions on sentencing by the defence and the prosecution.

Lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Giannella Caruana Curran noted that jurors had given the least possible verdict allowed by law after 12 hours of deliberation. They also noted that Mr Amber had a relatively clean criminal record.

Assistant Attorney General Anthony Barbara pointed out that the verdict clearly showed that Mr Amber was the contact person for Malta in importing the drugs that were most detrimental to society and called on the court to hand down an exemplary punishment.

Mr Justice Galea Debono put off the case to Thursday for judgement.