Court of Appeal of Malaysia: The Bench comprising of Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, JCA, Yaacob Haji Md Sam, JCA, Zabariah Mohd Yusof, JCA, affirmed the conviction and sentence to death in a case of possession of harmful and dangerous drugs.
In the present case, two appeals were combined on the same issue that was carrying of harmful and dangerous drugs named “Methamphetamine”. Both the convicts were convicted and sentenced to death for the offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs under Sections 39B(1)(a) and 39B(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
High Court’s analysis of the prosecution’s case was that the appellants were well aware of the fact of having drugs in their luggage and the reliance by the prosecution on Section 37(d) of the Act was proper. Consideration of the element of trafficking was invoked by Section 2 of the said Act. After the defence was put forward by the appellants it was found by the learned Judge that the defence was highly improbable and failed to raise any kind of reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case, which resulted into their conviction and death sentence.
Court of Appeal did not find any appealable error on the part of the learned judge which the prosecution could establish. The important elements of the charge preferred against the appellants were:
* That the substance found were dangerous drugs as listed in the Act,
* Appellants were in possession of the said drugs,
* Appellants were trafficking in the said drugs.
Therefore, on finding no merits in the appeal filed, it was dismissed by confirming the conviction and sentence of the High Court. [Kong Rin (L) v. Public Prosecutor,2018 SCC OnLine MYCA 1, dated 08-05-2018]
