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Sarawakian escapes death penalty for syabu possession
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KOTA KINABALU (June 19): The Court of Appeal here on Thursday sentenced a Sarawakian man to 20 years in jail and 10 strokes of the cane for possessing syabu six years ago.
Justice Dato' Hj Azman Abdullah, who sat with Justices Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Datuk Noorin Badaruddin, unanimously set aside Anthony Chan Wei Onn's death sentence for drug trafficking and substituted it with a conviction for drug possession.
The court held that the original conviction under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 was unsafe.
'But we find evidence to support a conviction under Section 39A(2). Therefore, the conviction under Section 39B(1)(a) is set aside and substituted with Section 39A(2),' the panel ruled.
Chan, 31, was ordered to serve his sentence from the date of his arrest on July 12, 2019.
On May 23, 2023, he had been sentenced to death by the High Court here after being found guilty of trafficking 2,129.1 grams of syabu at a premises along Jalan Lintas on July 12, 2019.
Previously, Chan was charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries the mandatory death penalty or, if not sentenced to death, life imprisonment and not less than 15 strokes of the cane upon conviction.
He was represented by counsel Hamid Ismail.
