PUTRAJAYA, Aug 21 — Two men escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal substituted their death sentences with 30 years’ imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane each for drug trafficking.
The decision was made by a three-member panel comprising Datuk Azmi Ariffin (now a Federal Court judge), Datuk Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz, and Datuk Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid, who dismissed Muhamad Nor Aziz and Muhamad Shafiq Aliff Mazlan’s appeals against their convictions.
However, the panel allowed the duo's appeals to set aside the death sentences and replace them with 30 years’ imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane each, with the prison terms taking effect from the date of their arrest on August 24, 2019.
In their grounds of judgment dated August 11 this year, Judge Hashimi said the trial judge’s two-year delay in preparing the grounds of judgment did not amount to excessive delay that had prejudiced either appellant.
“In our view, the mere allegation by counsel, without strong evidence of a miscarriage of justice or failure of justice on the part of the trial judge, is insufficient to set aside a conviction,” he said.
Judge Hashimi added that the two appellants had instead received a fair and impartial trial and had adequate opportunity to defend themselves.
The Court of Appeal panel had also examined the trial judge’s grounds of judgment and found no misdirection in the assessment of the witnesses’ conduct, nor any omission by the trial judge in evaluating the material facts of the case.
He said the prosecution witness who acted as an “agent provocateur” had also given credible and consistent evidence, establishing the involvement of both appellants, with a common intention, in the drug trafficking offence.
Aziz, 40, a mechanic, and Shafiq, 34, a lorry driver, were found guilty by the High Court on October 21, 2022, of trafficking 32.5g of heroin and 45.2g of monoacetylmorphines.
For the charge of possessing 895.9g of Etizolam, the two men were also sentenced to two years in prison each, with the sentences taking effect from August 24, 2019, the date of their arrest.
They were charged with committing the offences in a Perodua Myvi at Jalan Kepong-Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, at 7.27pm on August 24, 2019.
The two men subsequently filed appeals at the Court of Appeal against their convictions and the death sentences imposed for the drug trafficking offence.
