By Roy Denish.
A 38-year-old mother of three has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Colombo after being convicted of heroin possession and trafficking.
COLOMBO – The Colombo High Court sentenced a 38-year-old mother of three to life imprisonment on October 2 after finding her guilty of possessing and trafficking heroin.
High Court Judge Lanka Jayaratne delivered the verdict against the defendant, Mohamed Zahir Fathima Rizhana, also known as “Patti”.
According to State Counsel, the defendant was arrested by Grandpass Police on August 19, 2022, in the Wellampitiya area after being found concealing heroin inside her undergarments.
While initial reports and prosecution submissions noted that the total seized material weighed more than 70 grams, the Government Analyst’s Department confirmed that the net weight of pure heroin was 4.90 grams.
During sentencing, defence counsel pleaded for leniency, emphasising that the defendant is a mother of three young children and the sole breadwinner caring for them as well as her elderly mother.
However, Senior State Counsel sought the death penalty, stressing the severe damage drug trafficking inflicts on society, particularly on young people and schoolchildren.
The prosecution argued that the broader societal consequences of distributing narcotics outweighed the personal mitigating factors and cited precedent from a 1995 Supreme Court ruling.
Taking into account that the defendant had no previous criminal record, Judge Jayaratne imposed life imprisonment on the charges instead of the death penalty.
Following the verdict, the defendant’s husband broke down in tears inside the courtroom.
