Morocco Drug Offences (Jurisdiction) Case

• Jurisdiction: Dinamarca
• Date: 27 April 1983
• Court: Eastern Provincial Court (Denmark)

Denmark, Eastern Provincial Court.

Morocco Drug Offences (Jurisdiction) Case

Jurisdiction Personal Crimes committed by nationals abroad Jurisdiction of municipal courts Penalty limited to maximum which could be imposed in the place of commission of the offence The law of Denmark

Summary: The facts:The accused, a Danish national, was charged with attempting to import drugs from Morocco into the Netherlands in 1981. The attempt had failed due to the intervention of the French customs authorities, who had seized a yacht being used by the accused. The accused was convicted by a Danish court and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He appealed to the Eastern Provincial Court.

Held:The appeal against the conviction was dismissed but the sentence was reduced.

In accordance with the applicable provisions of the Danish Code of Criminal Law, the sentence was to be fixed at the maximum penalty which could have been imposed in the Netherlands for the attempted import into the Netherlands of the substances in question.

The text of the judgment of the Eastern Provincial Court commences below. The following is the text of the statement of facts which precedes the text of the judgment of the Court:

From the appeal (3388/1982Public Prosecutor v. T) it appears that the 38 year old Danish national T was convicted under Section 191(1)(1) of the Code of Criminal Law (cf. Section 191(2) combined with Section 1(2) of the Law on Narcotic Drugs; Government Notice No 90 of 24 February 1981, Section 2(2); Supplementary List A No 1 to the Notice and Section 21 of the Code of Criminal Law). During the period between 13 August and 21 August 1981 he had attempted, by means of a motor yacht, to import 1,739 kg of hashish and 4,360 kg of hashish oil from Morocco into Holland. The total value of this lot was approximately 70 million kroner. The attempt failed due to the intervention of the French customs authorities, who seized the yacht.

In the decision of the Helsinge City Court of 29 October 1982 it was held that T, with intent to obtain monetary gain, had carried out extensive and expensive preparations of a professional character for an international deal of a great size. Due to this fact the penalty was fixed at 6 years' imprisonment. Certain property was confiscated including a motor yacht used in the course...