UK aristocrat’s son awaits ruling on his bail

A British aristocrat’s son facing charges of trafficking $5.8 million worth of cocaine was awaiting a new ruling on his application for bail Monday, after prosecutors challenged to his conditional release.

Jack Marrian, 31, was charged last Thursday after police in the eastern port city of Mombasa seized a 100-kilo (220 pound) stash of cocaine in a sugar consignment orde-red by British firm ED&F Man. Magistrate Derrick Kuto earlier said Marrian, a sugar trader who has lived in East Africa since early childhood, could leave jail if he posted a bond of 70 million shillings ($690,600) with two Kenyan sureties and surrendered his passport. But Marrian will remain in custody ahead of a High Court hearing on Tuesday following a successful intervention by Kenya’s Director of Public Prosecutions, who protested the decision given the severity of the charge. The businessman could face a life sentence if convicted.

Dressed in a grey-blue suit and patterned tie, Marr-ian showed little emotion during the hearing, except to smile once at his parents across the packed courtroom. Defe-nce lawyer Sheetal Kapila told AFP he believed the case was driven by the authorities’ desire “to stop Kenya being a transit point” for drugs, but in this case, “it’s the wrong man who’s been picked up.” “Unknown people have smuggled this drug into the consignment,” Ms Kapila said. Mombasa on Africa’s east coast has long been used as a hub for drugs bound for Asia and Europe. Marrian’s case has caused a sensation in his native Britain, where the aristocratic background of his mother Lady Emma Clare Camp-bell of Cawdor and his attendance at top private schools, including the alma mater of Prince Will-iam’s wife Catherine, have caught the eye of the press. His family’s relationship with Kenya dates back decades as Marrian’s grandfather served as a minister in the colonial government just before independence in 1963.