By Janet A Sesay

Mohamed Mansaray, a convict for wounding, has been sentenced for five years by High Court Judge, Monfred Sesay for unlawful possession of ‘Kush.’

Owing to the five year-year jail term, Mansaray will spend nine years in prison as he was recently jailed for  four (4) by a magistrate Dolleh for wounding.

Mansaray’s high court sentence came during a  trial at the Sefadu correctional centre since he previously confessed to the police that he was in a Ghetto smoking ‘kush’ and ‘cannabis.’

While handing down the sentence verdict, the high court judge reminded the convict that he was sentenced by the magistrate not for drug abuse but fort wounding.

The convict, Mansaray pleaded for mercy citing stress after losing his mother as the cause of the drug abuse and addiction.

Mansaray was represented by a Legal Aid Lawyer Abdulai Koroma who pleaded for mercy.

 In his mitigation plea, Counsel Koroma submitted that the convict was “a very young man and had been truthful throughout the course of the investigation.”

The convict, he went on, was prepared for a change and urged the judge to look at the circumstances that led him into smoking ‘Kush.’

“The convict should be given a chance to make a change in society, and the judge must tamper justice with mercy,” the defence counsel further appealed to the judge.

In his reply to the plea, Justice Sesay said drug abuse could not solve the problem of an individual as it only worsened situation.

“The excuse given by the convicts is a fallacy as ‘kush’ cannot solve any problem,” The high court judge stressed.

He sentenced the convict for five years which should commence immediately while the previous sentence in the magistrate court runs in full.