The crime of online drug trafficking in Palestinian Legislation

The Palestinian legislator criminalized drug trafficking through the Internet and made deterrent penalties of it. Drug trafficking is a felony that may lead to a ten-year imprisonment at least. The rationale for this punishment is that this crime constitutes a danger to human health, security and society. The problem of the study arises from the lack of clarity of the legal nature of the crime of trafficking through the Internet because it is a new crime; subsequently, there is a dearth of studies that deal with this crime. It should be noted that the Palestinian legislator expanded on the acts constituting the material element of the crime of drug trafficking through the Internet. The legislator considered presenting information on a website about how narcotic drugs are manufactured and the methods of marketing them among the punishable crimes, which is a legislative precedent for which the Palestinian legislator is thanked. Acts of dealing with drugs through the means of information technology vary, whether the criminal is a single person or organized gangs, and those who carry out marketing, display or publishing acts of drugs through social media, or email, or by establishing private forums to promote drugs. It is obvious that the Palestinian legislator tightens imprisonment by at least ten years and a fine of no less than ten thousand Jordanian dinars for the crimes of drug trafficking through the Internet, in the case of repetition, exploitation of the minor or the situation in which the perpetrator carries someone else to action by any means of coercion. However, the Palestinian legislator only tightens the fine for the crime of drug trafficking through the Internet. The Palestinian legislator in the crime of drug trafficking, in its conventional form, expands on the aggravating circumstances compared to the crime of drug trafficking through the Internet. It also stressed punishment where it defined a life-imprisonment sentence and a fine of no less than fifteen thousand Jordanian dinars and no more than twenty-five thousand Jordanian dinars in the crimes of trafficking in their traditional form, and therefore we would like the Palestinian legislator to add such aggravating circumstances and deterrent penalties to the criminal texts of acts of drug trafficking through the Internet