Muscat: The Court of First Instance in the wilayat of Barka recently issued two judicial rulings against violators of the Consumer Protection Law, which ruled conviction, imprisonment, and fines totalling OMR 2,100 with deportation from the country, for dealing in chewed (non-smoked) tobacco.
A statement issued online by Consumer Protection Authority said, "The facts were summarized while the judicial control officers of the Consumer Protection Department in Barka were conducting their intensive inspection campaigns to control the markets in general and places suspected of having hidden practices of violating activities such as the circulation of prohibited goods in particular, judicial control officers arrested expatriate workers selling non-smoked chewed tobacco."
"After completing the procedures in force in such cases, the case was referred to the Public Prosecution, which in turn began investigating it, and then referred it to the competent court, which issued a verdict indicting the first accused with a misdemeanor for handling a commodity not authorised for circulation and ruled to punish him with one-year imprisonment and a fine of OMR 2,000 and his conviction with other misdemeanors, provided that the penalties are combined with each other, and the most severe of them will be executed, along with deportation from the country, after the execution of the penalty and the confiscation of the seized materials for their destruction."
"The other ruling convicted the accused with a misdemeanor for the circulation of a commodity not authorised for circulation and another misdemeanor and ruled that he be punished for the first with three months imprisonment and for the second with one-month imprisonment, and the two punishments are combined with each other and the more severe of them shall be carried out with his deportation from the country after the execution of the punishment, and the seized materials are confiscated for their destruction," the statement added.
