KEY POINTS:
An Iranian man who admitted, after an unusual court process, that he imported more than one kilogram of the drug P into New Zealand has been jailed for 9-1/2 years.
Majid Safaei Javid, 34, was convicted by a High Court jury in Auckland earlier this year of importing and supplying crystal methamphetamine worth more than $1 million before any evidence was called so that he could appeal the admissibility of some evidence.
Justice Simon France had, in agreement with Javid's then-lawyer Barry Hart, asked the jury to return the verdicts at the start of the trial but indicated he would appeal an earlier decision to allow the evidence.
Mr Hart had challenged whether a warrant allowing police to intercept mobile phone communications was authorised and admissible.
The Court of Appeal in June this year agreed it was admissible and subsequently confirmed the conviction.
At the High Court in Auckland today, Justice Graham Lang said the defence request for the jury to convict Javid despite appealing the admissibility of the evidence would carry the same weight as a guilty plea.
Drugs were imported in the lining of a suitcase to Christchurch in March 2005. They were then brought to Auckland.
Police subsequently found the drugs at an address in suburban Three Kings after Javid had left it. In addition, some small bags of methamphetamine were found in a fridge.
Justice Lang said an appropriate starting point for sentencing would be 17 years.
However, he noted that Javid had been ill-treated in Iran and arrived as a refugee. After his arrival he opened a kebab shop which went bankrupt, and then lost more money after getting involved in gambling, alcohol and drug use.
Shortly after this he got into methamphetamine importation to pay for his debts.
Javid rose to become the head of the operation in New Zealand, getting to a stage where other people carried the risk by doing the transporting of the drugs, but he was not regarded as the international mastermind of the operation.
He said Javid had made good progress in custody, had expressed remorse for his actions and said he would go back to Iran as soon as he was released.
These actions and his guilty plea entitled him to a discount of 7-1/2 years, making his full jail sentence 9-1/2 years. No minimum non-parole period was sought.
- NZPA
