A 41 year old farmer from Vunaniu Village in Serua has been sentenced to 6 years behind bars for cultivating 1,210 marijuana plants.
Osea Kiliraki pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful cultivation of an illicit drug.
The incident happened between 1st July to October in 2020.
Kiliraki was initially sentenced to 13 years but High Court Judge Justice Salesi Temo deducted 1 year from the sentence for pleading guilty, 1 year for being a first offender and another year for the time spent in remand.
Justice Temo then deducted another 4 years because Kiliraki cooperated with police during the investigations and led them to his farm voluntarily.
He says we should show mercy to these kind of people as a message to other offenders.
The court was also told that the man cultivated marijuana because he was struggling financially.
A non-parole period of 4 years has been set.
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