£2m drug haul case aristocrat sent back to prison
Law chief fights decision to free businessman on bail
A SCOTTISH aristocrat’s son accused of smuggling £2.2million of cocaine into Kenya was sent back to jail last night after prosecutors protested against him being granted £1million bail.
Jack Marrian, grandson of the sixth Earl Cawdor, was arrested last week after 220lbs of the drug was found in bags of sugar being shipped from Brazil to Uganda via Mombasa in Kenya.
He had been held in custody until yesterday when he was granted bail at a magistrates court hearing.
Two wealthy friends from Kenyan high society each agreed to provide a surety of 70million Kenyan shillings (£530,000).
But only hours later Kenya’s director of public prosecutions intervened, protesting to Nairobi’s High Court at the bail decision due to the severity of the charge, which carries a potential life sentence.
The development is a fresh blow for his parents, Lady Emma Campbell and David Marrian, who insist he is innocent and have vowed to fight to get him out of custody.
Born in the UK, Mr Marrian, 31, was raised in an affluent part of Nairobi and educated at an international school with three-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome. He went on to study at Marlborough College, where the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Eugenie were pupils, and then Bristol University.
For the past eight years he has worked in Africa running a string of sugar and commodity firms.
His lawyer had predicted the case would be thrown out, saying it was a founded on a ‘complete misunderstanding’.
Now, however, Mr Marrian faces a fresh legal battle at the High Court today after his bail was revoked pending the prosecutor’s appeal.
His family had earlier travelled to the Nairobi slum of Kibera to see him appear at court where magistrate Derrick Kuto granted bail and rejected prosecutor’s suggestions that, as a British national, Mr Marrian was a flight risk.
He said the defendant – whose ancestral home is Cawdor Castle, near Nairn, the setting for Macbeth – had lived in Kenya since the age of four so there was ‘no compelling reason’ not to release him.
Two of Mr Marrian’s friends were asked to present to the court property title deeds or bank statements showing cash deposits that could be used as surety should he attempt to flee.
As the magistrate made his ruling, he glanced at his parents who left court to seek guarantors for his release while Mr Marrian was kept in a holding cell along with at least 20 other prisoners.
Speaking to the Daily Mail through the bars, Mr Marrian said he was ‘fine’ and looking forward to his release.
Speaking outside the court building, David Marrian said it was ‘frightening’ to see his son in court, but added: ‘We are pleased that the magistrate has given bail and now we have quite a lot of work to do. The next part will be just to make sure that Jack is exonerated from all the charges. We have spoken to him every day. He is an innocent man, he is not racked with guilt. He looked strong and good.’
But within hours the case had been referred to the High Court.
Mr Marrian’s lawyer, Sheetal Kapila, said the case was founded on a ‘complete misunderstanding’ and he was confident it would be resolved before long.
He said the consignment of sugar from Brazil was owned by Mshale Commodities, of which Mr Marrian is managing director, but all 22 containers had been thoroughly checked and sealed by independent inspectors before departure.
The cocaine was found by Kenyan police and US Drug Enforcement Agency officials, reportedly after an Interpol tip-off.
Mr Kapila said his client was arrested at dawn on Sunday.
‘I think it’s a misunderstanding and a desire to end a terrible social problem, to stop Kenya being a transit point but it’s the wrong man who has been picked up,’ he said. ‘We have full confidence in the judicial system. It may take a little while but it will all get sorted out.’
Mr Marrian’s trial and that of Kenyan man Roy Francis Mwanthi, who faces the same charges, has been scheduled for October.
A statement from Mshale Commodities said: ‘We are confident Jack Marrian will be fully exonerated once the facts are presented.’
‘I think it’s a misunderstanding’