Regoanal was sentenced to death by the High Court here after he was found guilty of distributing 801.4 grams of Methamphetamine on June 6, 2016.
KUCHING (Mar 22): A self-employed man has escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal today agreed to change the charge from drug trafficking to drug possession and sentenced him to 18 years in jail.
The panel of judges consisting of Dato Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, Datuk Ravinthran Paramaguru dan Dato Gunalan Muniandy ordered Regoanal Awing alias Rickynold Igai’s sentence to take effect from the date of arrest on June 6, 2016
No whipping was imposed on the appellant as he is 50 years old.
On April 27, 2017, Regoanal was sentenced to death by the High Court here after he was found guilty of distributing 801.4 grams of Methamphetamine on June 6, 2016 at 9am in front of a courier center at Jalan Song here.
He was charged and convicted under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sentenced under Section 39B(2) of the same Act.
The man then filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal and today, the charge was amended to Section 12(2) of the Act and sentenced under Section 39A(2) of the same act.
The panel of judges agreed with the submission of the appellant’s counsel Fung Lee Fook who stated that ‘double presumption’ cannot be applied to convict an accused of drug trafficking.
Citing previous cases, Fung explained that the principle of ‘double presumption’ was contrary to the principles of construction of penal statutes and unduly harsh and oppressive against the accused.
Prosecution was handled by Deputy Public Prosecutor, Muhammad Azmi Mashud.
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