Salad kulahaA MAN who brought an African plant-like vegetation called khat from London, where it is legal, to Ireland, where it is illegal, has been given a two-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for illegally possessing a prohibited drug.
However, having heard that he had no previous convictions, Judge Frank O’Donnell suspended the sentence.
Mohamed Ibrahim (26), a refugee originally from Somalia, was found with about €6,000 worth of the drug in November 2006 at Dublin airport. Ibrahim, Phoenix View, James’s Street, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of khat.
Garda Ronan Darcy told Seán Gillane SC, prosecuting, that Ibrahim said it was “salad” after a Customs officer spotted a large quantity of vegetation in his case through the X-ray machine.
Garda Darcy said Ibrahim said a friend had given it to him in London and he did not know it was illegal in Ireland. He was going to share it among the Somalian community here and it was not for sale.
Ibrahim had been in Ireland for four years at the time and was returning from a day trip to London, where he had met family and friends. He had no previous convictions and had not come to Garda attention since. Garda Darcy agreed with Anne Marie Lawlor, defending, that Ibrahim was co-operative and that “salad” was a colloquial name for khat.
Judge O’Donnell said it was strange that someone here as a refugee on social welfare could hop on a plane for a day and get this drug. He asked to see Ibrahim’s passport so he could see how often he travelled to England, but Garda Darcy said he had travelled on a Garda immigration card that day.
Ms Lawlor said he had been able to purchase the flight ticket because he had got two weeks of social welfare for Christmas.
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