A HASH OF LIFE

 

 

In an astonishing show of justice, a Kuwait court on 14 January sentenced a member of the country’s royal family to death for trafficking drugs (cocaine and hashish). The ruling is believed to be the first time a member of a ruling dynasty in a Gulf Arab country has been condemned for drug-related offences. It probably is the most emphatic sentence for a drug crime anywhere in the world. In his verdict, Humoud-al-Mutawah (one of the three judges who oversaw the case) said, “The crimes of Sheikh Talal Nasser Al Sabah threatened society . . . especially young people who bought hashish and cocaine from him. Talal willingly walked the path of evil and deserves no mercy”. It is not clear how closely Talal, who was fined about $35,000 in addition, is related to the head of the ruling family (in the Gulf, a ruling family typically has hundreds of members).

The verdict instantly boosted morale. News wires quoted Najib al-Wugayyan, a prominent criminal lawyer, who said, “This is a magnificent indication to all that nobody is above the law.” The order was greeted in India as well. “If we can hang an ordinary man for the same offense, why not a member of the royal family? India has the death penalty so I wonder why we don’t put drug offences in that category,” Oswald Pereira, who helped co-found Kripa Foundation, India’s largest NGO which deals with drug-related rehabilitation, told TSI.

India is one of the world’s biggest transit points for drugs from the East as well as the West. The number of drug offences, and the number of people developing drug dependency, is rising. Death sentence for drug traffickers makes sense. India needs to send a few to the gallows.