Syabu case man spared gallows

KOTA KINABALU: A 29-year-old man from Selangor who was sentenced to death for trafficking 1,402gm of syabu escaped the gallows and was ordered to serve 18 years jail and 10 lashes of the cane instead on a lesser charge of possession.

Federal Court Justices Dato’ Seri Utama Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, Dato’ Rohana Yusuf, Dato’ Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Tan Sri Idrus Harun, on Tuesday unanimously allowed Kho Kang Yau’s appeal against his conviction and death sentence.

“The conviction and sentence under Section 39B(1)(b) of the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) is set aside…we substituted it with conviction under Section 12 (2) of the DDA read with Section 39A(2) of the DAA and sentenced the appellant to 18 years imprisonment and 10 strokes of whipping,” held Tengku Maimun.

Kho was ordered to serve the sentence from the date of his arrest on March 6, 2015.

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Kho was seen overwhelmed after hearing the decision.

Kho, who was an air-conditioning technician, was on June 23, 2017 found guilty by the High Court here and sentenced to death for committing the offence at 11.15am on March 6, 2015 at the International Arrival Hall, Terminal 2 of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

The offence under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act carries the death penalty, upon conviction.

His appeal was rejected by the Court of Appeal on Sept 24, 2018.

Assigned counsel Ram Singh, who represented Kho, together with counsel Kimberly Ye, had earlier submitted that the trial judge erred when invoking both the presumptions under Section 37(d) and Section 37(Da)(xvi) of the Dangerous Drugs Act to convict Kho for the offence of trafficking.

Citing a recent decided case, Ram submitted that the approach on relying on double presumptions had been held to be wrong by the Federal Court in the said decided case.

Ram applied for Kho’s conviction to be struck down and applied that it be substituted with one of possessions under Section 12(1) of the DDA and punishable under Section 39A(2) of the same Act.

During mitigation, Ram applied for a 15 years jail be imposed as Kho, who was from Puchong, was a first offender.

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Deputy Public Prosecutor Khairul Anuar Abd Halim submitted that the conviction was still safe based on the facts and direct evidence available without the need to invoke Section 37(d) of the DDA.

On the sentence, DPP Khairul applied for a 20 years jail plus 10 strokes of the cane adding that the range of imprisonment was between 15 to 18 years but based on the weight of the drugs.

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