China woman on death row fails in appeal
Published on: Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: A 24-year-old woman from China, who was sentenced to death for trafficking 1,397.1gm of syabu failed in her appeal against the sentence at the Court of Appeal.Justices Datuk Lim Yee Lan, Dato' Abdul Rahman Sebli and Puan Sri Zaleha Yusof unanimously dismissed the appeal by Cheng Jin Hui after hearing submissions from her and the prosecution as the respondent.The court held that there was nothing in the appeal record that warrants the court's intervention on the findings made by the High Court.
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Cheng was June 9, 2016 found guilty by the High Court here and convicted of committing the offence at 11.25pm on July 6, 2014 at the passengers' examination area at the arrival hall in Terminal Two of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA).The offence under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 carries the death penalty on conviction.Earlier, counsel Ram Singh representing Cheng, submitted that it was a genuine case of an innocent courier who was asked to carry clothes samples to Malaysia by some African men in China. Cheng did not realise the secret compartment inside the luggage contained drugs and she did check the content of the luggage and found nothing except clothes samples and her own clothes, submitted Ram.
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Cheng's shock reaction could not be inferred as she knew drugs were inside the secret compartment of the luggage, he added.Ram also submitted that the High Court judge misdirected herself when she held that there was trafficking of drugs as she had men's rea possession of the luggage and drugs inside the luggage.
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