Drugs: Car accessory installer gets life
Published on: Thursday, August 29, 2024
By: Jo Ann Mool
Each charge under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) 1952 carries a punishment of either the death penalty or life in prison and whipping with a minimum of 15 strokes.
Kota Kinabalu: A 51-year-old car accessory installer was on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment by the High Court here on three counts of drug trafficking.
Yii Hock Kiong was also jailed for a total of eight years on another four counts of possession of multiple drugs.
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Judge Amelati Parnell found Yii guilty of committing the offences on Feb 22, 2020.
Yii was convicted of trafficking 2,274.12gm of Ketamine and 943.39gm of syabu, respectively at 9.51am in a unit at Block C, level 12 of the Lido Four Seasons Residence, Jalan Lintas, Kepayan; as well as 69.43gm of syabu at 9.25am, at the parking lot in the basement of the same condominium.
Each charge under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) 1952 carries a punishment of either the death penalty or life in prison and whipping with a minimum of 15 strokes.
Amelati sentenced Yii to imprisonment for life which is a term of 30 years for all the three drug trafficking charges.
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Yii was, however, sparred the whip due to his age, which was above 50 years old.
On the four counts of drugs possessions: Yii was sentenced to three years jail for having 7.91gm of Amphetamine at 9.51am in the same unit of the condominium as framed under Section 12(2) of the DDA and punishable under Section 39A(1) of the DDA.
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He was jailed three years for having 41.79gm of Ketamine at 9.25am at the parking lot in the condominium’s basement; and was handed one year jail for having 0.1gm of Nimetazepam at 9.51am, in the said condominium’s unit, both framed under Section 12(2) of the DDA and punishable under Section 12(3) of the DDA.
Yii received another two years jail for having 189.5gm of Nitrazepam, which is listed in Schedule One and Schedule Three (Psychoactive Substances) of the Poison Act 1952, an offence under Section 30(3) of the same Act.
The court ordered Yii, who has been under remand since his arrest, to serve all the imprisonment sentences concurrently from his date of arrest on Feb 22, 2020.
Amelati in delivering her judgement, held that the court found that the prosecution had proven its case against Yii beyond reasonable doubt….the essential ingredients on all the evidence for all seven charges.
Yii failed to rebut the presumption of trafficking on the balance of probabilities about the three charges under Section 39B(1)(a) of DDA 1952.
“As for other charges for all possession under Section 12(2) of the DDA, Section 12 (3) of the DDA and Poison Act, this court finds that the prosecution had proven its case and the accused failed to cast reasonable doubt….the accused therefore found guilty and convicted on all the seven charges,” held Amelati.
Earlier, counsel Hamid Ismail, who representing Yii, together with counsel Amli Nohin, applied for a life imprisonment sentence instead of the death penalty on the three trafficking charges.
Hamid also applied for imprisonment terms for all the drug possession charges to run concurrently with the sentence of the three trafficking charges.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Rustam Sanip urged the court to exercise its discretion and impose the death penalty on Yii, arguing that the offence was extremely serious and rampant.
DPP Rustam submitted that imposing the death penalty would help shift public perception, demonstrating that capital punishment can still be applied in drug trafficking cases and potentially deterring others from committing similar offences.
DPP Rustam, in pressing for the death penalty, noted that Yii faced three charges of drug trafficking and that a substantial quantity of drugs, including several types, was seized from him.
A total of 14 prosecution witnesses testified at the prosecution stage while Yii, who was the sole defence witness, gave sworn evidence in his defence.
Meanwhile, a 28-year-old man was also sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered 12 lashes of the cane for trafficking 64.83gm of syabu, two years ago.
Asriyadi Bakri was found guilty and convicted by Judge Datuk Dr Lim Hock Leng of trafficking the drugs on March 30, 2022, at 10.30pm, at the roadside of Taman Merpati Apartment area, Bundusan, Penampang.
Asriyadi was also charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) 1952.
Three prosecution witnesses and two defence witnesses testified throughout the trial.
DPP Dacia Jane Romanus prosecuted while Asriyadi was represented by counsel Norbert Chin.
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