Criminal Court and Juvenile Court stop processing drugs-related cases

The Criminal Court and Juvenile Court have decided to stop processing cases related to drugs, due to the enforcement of the law on drugs.

The Criminal Court said that as a result of the law on drugs coming into effect, they have now stopped processing cases related to drugs.

The Juvenile Court also said that with the implementation of the law on drugs, processing of drugs-related cases will be stopped with effect from today.

The newly-implemented law on drugs states that with its enforcement, all cases related to drugs with the exception of drug trafficking will be dealt with by Drug Court, a new institution to be set up under this law.

The law also says that, the Judges of Criminal, Juvenile and Drug Courts and the Prosecutor General are to cooperate in determining which of the cases previously submitted to Criminal and Juvenile Courts are drug-related. These cases are then to be handed over to the Drug Court.

Even though the law has come into effect, the Drug Court has not yet been set up. In addition, majority of the cases handled by the Criminal Court and for which trials are scheduled daily, are cases related to drugs.