Man jailed 10 years after offered lower charge for drugs offence

 

The Court of Appeal ordered Hasibullah Ghazali’s jail term to begin from Dec 2, 2020. (Reuters pic)

PUTRAJAYA: An unemployed man had his 15-year jail sentence reduced to 10 years after pleading guilty to an amended charge of cannabis possession.

A three-member Court of Appeal bench, chaired by Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, decided to set aside Hasibullah Ghazali’s conviction and 15-year jail term imposed by the Taiping High Court last August.

Ahmad, who sat with Justices Azmi Ariffin and Zaini Mazlan, ordered Hasibullah’s jail term to begin from Dec 2, 2020. The panel also spared him the minimum 12 strokes of the rotan as he is above 50 years old.

The prosecution previously appealed against the High Court’s sentence on the grounds that he should have been sentenced to 30 years in prison instead.

Lawyer Charan Singh then said he had instructions from his client to seek a retrial.

However, deputy public prosecutor Fuad Abdul Aziz today presented an amended charge that Hasibullah, 58, was in possession of 380.21gm of cannabis at a house on Dec 2, 2020, an offence under Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

Under Section 39A(2) of the Act, possession is punishable with a prison sentence of five to 30 years upon conviction.

Appeal records revealed that Hasibullah was wrongly advised by his previous lawyer to plead guilty to trafficking as a law had come into force in July last year giving the court the discretion to impose life imprisonment (30 years) or sentence a convicted person to death.

The trial judge had also imposed the 15-year jail term as it was unclear then whether 30 years for trafficking was the maximum sentence.

However, it has been clarified now by way of judicial pronouncements that those found guilty of trafficking must only be jailed 30 years, as intended by the legislature. - FMT