By KEVIN J. KELLEYMore by this AuthorNEW YORK,The life-imprisonment term recommended for confessed drug trafficker Baktash Akasha is excessive, his lawyer argues in a letter to the US judge who will decide the Kenyan’s fate. In urging a sentence close to the 10-year range for Baktash, Mr Goltzer says his client is plagued by “severe health issues, which include depression with a history of suicide attempts, diabetes, asthma and morbid obesity”. “Not even a gram of heroin actually reached the US as part of the admitted trafficking conspiracy," Mr Goltzer says. Baktash is also said to have been left deeply troubled by the suicide in 2011 of his second wife, Soad Baktash. Attorney Goltzer has also submitted to the judge numerous letters of support for Baktash Akasha from family members, friends and associates in Kenya.

Source: Daily Nation April 13, 2019 18:56 UTC