Gallows as Indian national loses his final appeal
Published on: Friday, May 13, 2016
Alor Setar: A 33-year-old Indian national will be sent to the gallows for trafficking 1,982.2gm of ketamine after losing his final appeal against his conviction and sentence in the Federal Court here, Thursday.Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, who sat with Federal Justices Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop, Tan Sri Abu Samah Nordin, Datuk Zaharah Ibrahim and Datuk Aziah Ali, unanimously dismissed Syed Abu Thagir Syed Abu Bakar's appeal and affirmed his conviction.Malanjum held that there was no merit in Abu Thagir's appeal.ADVERTISEMENT Abu Thagir, an electrician from Tamil Nadu, was on Feb 13, 2012 convicted by the High Court of trafficking the drugs and sentenced to death.He had committed the offence on Dec 30, 2010 at 12.30pm at the International Arrival Hall, Terminal 1 of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), here.The charge, framed under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) 1952, carries the death sentence on conviction.The Court of Appeal rejected Abu Thagir's appeal on Jan 20, 2015.ADVERTISEMENT Earlier, Abu Thagir's counsel, Hamid Ismail, submitted, among others, that the prosecution's evidence was insufficient to prove trafficking.The trial judge had not considered Abu Thagir's conduct prior to the discovery of the drugs and relied on his reaction when the drugs were found to decide that he trafficked the drugs, said Hamid.
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Hamid submitted that Abu Thagir's earlier conduct was not considered as he was acting normal before the finding of the drugs and did not hesitate to open the luggage when asked to do so.Hamid said when the officers found sarees in the luggage and asked Abu Thagir to pay taxes amounting to RM300 Abu Thagir bargained for a lesser amount of RM200."If Abu Thagir knew that he was bringing drugs, he would not bargain and just pay the amount asked to avoid any problem. Therefore, no case of trafficking, the best is only possession," said Hamid.It was revealed in the trial that the drugs were found in plastic packets beneath the embroideries on 10 out of 50 pieces of sarees in Abu Thagir's bag.Deputy Public Prosecutor Fatnin Yusof rebutted that the trial judge was correct when he held that since Abu Thagir had custody and control of the said drugs, the presumption of knowledge under Section 37 (d) of DDA applied to him.In another similar case, the court adjourned the appeal by a Nigerian man who was sentenced to death for trafficking 1,907.8gm of syabu following an application for another date by the prosecution.Kennedy Okwudili Nnadi, 43, was on Aug 4, 2011 found guilty by the High Court here of committing the offence at 1pm on July 23, 2010 at the Special Passengers Examination Unit in Terminal 2 of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport here.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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His appeal at the Court of Appeal was rejected on March 21, 2013.No objection was raised by counsel PJ Perira, who represented Kennedy, to the application by the prosecution on Thursday.