A convicted drug dealer’s four-year sentence was reduced by nearly a year on Friday after he was given credit for time served in pre-trial custody following a complex hearing in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench.
Justice Doreen Sulyma sentenced Majed Ali Sultan, 27, of Calgary to four years in prison a week ago after he pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime.
However, the question of how much, if any, time in pre-trial custody should be credited to Sultan proved a thorny issue.
Defence lawyer Jake Chadi argued that as much as two years should be credited to Sultan based on nearly a year spent in custody and taking into account the then-common practice of giving two-for-one credit for time served before a conviction.
Federal Crown prosecutor Dave Inglis said it was questionable whether any credit should be given because the accused was only in custody for so long because his bail on the drug charges was revoked in July 2009 after Sultan had been charged a few weeks earlier with new crimes.
Both sides were back in court on Friday to argue their cases before the justice, who oversaw the proceedings from Edmonton via a video link.
Chadi said the time the accused spent in custody between June 2009 and June 2010 should be credited to his client. It is not fair to connect time in custody to the second set of charges because they were later withdrawn, he argued.
Inglis conceded that a case could be made for giving credit for the period from March 4, 2010, when the second set of charges was dropped, to June 18, 2010 when Sultan was granted bail on the earlier drug charges. Whether any other time should be credited is at the judge’s discretion.
Sulyma ruled that Sultan should get credit for the 106 days spent in custody from March 4 to June 18, 2010 on a two-for-one basis, bringing it up to 212 days. He was also given single credit for 141 days served between Oct. 13, when Sulyma had been granted bail on the second set of charges but couldn’t make the $20,000 deposit, to March 4, when those charges were dropped. Total credit worked out to 353 days.
Sultan was also ordered to provide a sample of his DNA to a national databank and is prohibited from owning a weapon for 10 years. Everything seized by police was forfeited.
He was charged on April 22, 2009, after he was stopped by RCMP for speeding on Hwy 2 near Olds. Alerted by a strong chemical smell coming from Sultan’s vehicle, RCMP called in a sniffer dog.
After a search, about 275 grams of crack cocaine and just over $45,000 in cash, folded in bundles, was recovered from a padlocked computer case. The drugs were worth $18,000 to $40,000.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com