TAWAU: A father of 10 children was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Tawau High Court, Thursday, after being found guilty of distributing 171.2gm of methamphetamine two years ago.
Talib Akmad, 60, was given the sentence by Judge Datuk Duncan Sikodol who ordered him to serve the sentence from the date of his arrest on Jan 5, 2022.
Talib was also ordered to be referred to the Immigration Department for deportation after serving his sentence. He was spared the rotan due to his age.
The Filipino committed the offence at Kg Air, Lahad Datu, at around 4.30am on Jan 5, 2022.
He was charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act which can be punished under Section 39B(2) of the same Act which provides for the death penalty or imprisonment for life, and shall, if not sentenced to death, be punished with not less than 15 strokes of the cane, if convicted.
The case was heard from Jan 29-31 this year with six prosecution witnesses and one defence witness testifying.
Deputy Public Prosecutor, Hurman Hussain prosecuted while the accused was represented by counsel Kamarudin Mohmad Chinki.
Earlier, Kamarudin in his mitigation appeal requested that his client not be sentenced to death because the accused has two wives and 10 children.
He said based on the repeal of the mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, he requested that the court use its discretion to impose a life sentence.
In addition, he said, Section 289 of the Criminal Procedure Code stated that men aged 50 and above cannot be whipped.
“The sentencing trend in Borneo, especially for cases as serious as this, tends to favour life imprisonment as per Section 3, Criminal Justice Act 1953 (Act 345),” Kamarudin said.
