Hiding in his shorts… diamonds, jewelry and hashish

A 45-year-old Belgian of Turkish origin was sentenced to 30 months and 10 days in prison with a three-year suspension after he was arrested by customs officers for hiding a total of 578 diamonds, 58 gems and 15 grams of hashish in his underwear. !

The foreigner was detained on August 9, 2017 by the customs officers of Rhodes as part of the screening of passengers arriving from a neighboring country.

In particular, the 45-year-old Belgian traveled by ship from Marmaris, Turkey, and arrived in Rhodes. As part of an inspection carried out by officers of the Rhodes Customs, two large diamonds were found in the luggage of a foreigner.

A personal search of the Belgian followed, during which it was found that he carefully hid four bags in his underwear, containing a total of 19 medium-sized diamonds, 559 small diamonds, 58 jewelry and 0.80 grams of marijuana.

All diamonds, jewelry and drugs were confiscated, and the detained foreigner was charged with smuggling and taken to court. At the same time, diamonds and jewelry were confiscated and were subject to return to the 45-year-old, when he paid the appropriate fees, a multiple of their total amount.

The case was heard at first instance on August 14, 2017 by the three-member Criminal Court of Rhodes, where the 45-year-old man denied the claims attributed to him. He stated that he purchased the diamonds in Belgium, where he lives and works professionally, “from hands”, that is, to a private person in need of money.

Regarding his trip to Rhodes, he said that he decided he was only in Greece for 1 day, as he was returning home to Belgium. The man added that he was thinking of buying a cheaper ticket here.

However, these allegations did not convince the district attorney, who in his statement asked to find a 45-year-old man guilty of smuggling, citing the defendant’s “controversial arguments” and why he did not declare the jewelry and hid it in his underwear.

The prosecutor noted that the defendant “knew that his action was illegal, and he did not have documents for diamonds”, so he acted in this way. However, in connection with suspicions, the prosecutor demanded that the charge of possession of a small amount of drugs for personal use be dropped from the foreigner.

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