PESHAWAR, Feb 10: The Peshawar High Court on Friday dismissed the appeal of a Turkish woman and upheld life imprisonment awarded to her in a narcotics smuggling case.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Shehzad Akber Khan and Justice Saleem Khan observed that the appellant was charged with smuggling of 21 kgs of heroin which was a huge quantity. It observed that the prosecution had proved its case against her.

Appellant Fatima Uskurat was arrested from international departure lounge of the Peshawar International Airport on March 21, 2003 with 21 kgs of heroin concealed in her two bags. She was tried and convicted by the Special Judge (control of narcotics) and on Mar 3, 2004 awarded life imprisonment. She was further with fine of Rs300,000 in default of which she would undergo an additional three-year imprisonment.

Earlier the counsel appellant argued that the forensic report on the recovered contraband was faulty inasmuch as under section 3 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997, it was mandatory to calculate percentage of banned ingredients in a seized quantity.

He contended that he had moved an application before the trial court for the said calculation but the same was dismissed.

He contended that legal requirements had not been fulfilled during the trial and his client placed at a disadvantageous position.

The counsel argued that the test showed that the contraband had no aroma, whereas heroin always emits aroma.

He the woman could speak and understand only Turkish language thus she faced problems during the trial as she could not understand the proceedings. He claimed that the luggage in question did not belong to the appellant; it belonged to an African woman who had slipped away from the scene.

State counsel Tariq Kakar, however, contended that the woman was caught red-handed while she was carrying the bags from which the contraband was recovered. He argued that the chemical report had proved that the seized quantity was heroin.