‘Every dog has its day’ could best sum up what happened to a Venezuelan woman Delcy Daymar Rodriguez Guererro who had her jail sentence wholly suspended by regional magistrate Morgen Nemadire.
Rodriguez Guerorro was arrested last year after being found in possession of more than 5kg of cocaine valued at $469 000.
He was sentenced to seven months in prison or $700 fine which Nemadire wholly suspended on the grounds that it was expensive to keep foreigners in local prisons.
Nemadire ordered the State to dispose the cocaine.
Prosecutor George Manokore had submitted that a fine would trivialize the gravity of the offence and would be a mockery to the justice delivery system.
“Zimbabwe should not be taken as a playground for drug-related offences. In some jurisdictions such as China, and generally Asian countries, they impose capital sentence and that shows the seriousness of the offence in relation to drugs. The State suggests that the accused be sentenced to the maximum penal provision,” Manokore told the court.
The court heard that on October 18 last year, police on duty at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport received a tip-off that Guererro was travelling to Harare from Brazil and was suspected to be carrying dangerous drugs.
Meanwhile, in June 2017 a 32-year-old self confessed sex worker Beauty Mutashu, who was arrested at Harare International Airport while trying to smuggle 3,8 kilogrammes of cocaine worth $304 000 into the country, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by a Harare magistrate.
