PUTRAJAYA, Nov 22 — A former mechanic and a former cosmetician, found guilty on two counts of trafficking drugs, escaped the gallows today after the Court of Appeal commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment of 30 years.
Justice Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired the three-member bench, reduced the sentence after dismissing the appeals by Lim Teck Hock and Lee Sheue Ning against their convictions.
She said the drugs were indeed found in the bedroom occupied by the two appellants and that their version of the drugs belonging to two other persons was unreasonable.
However, the court used its discretion under the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 (Act 846) to commute the couple’s death sentence to life imprisonment of 30 years for each charge, which to start from November 1, 2018, the date of their arrest.
Justice Hadhariah also ordered Lim and Lee to serve the sentences concurrently, meaning they will serve 30 years in jail. Lim was spared the rotan as he is over 50 years old.
The other judges presiding on the bench were Justices Datuk Azman Abdullah and Datuk Azmi Ariffin.
Lim, 63 and Lee, 31, were sentenced to death by the Penang High Court on September 27 last year for trafficking 77.9 g of heroin and monoacetylmorphine and 1517.3 g of methamphetamine in an apartment in Persiaran Bayan Indah, Bayan Lepas, Penang at 3.20am on November 1, 2018.
Lawyer P. Latsmanan and Hussaini Abdul Rashid, representing Lim and Lee respectively, submitted that the drugs belonged to two other individuals who were also arrested by police for drug offences.
Latsmanan said the two individuals stayed at the rented apartment a few days before the appellants moved in. He said the couple were not husband and wife but lived together.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz submitted the drugs belonged to the appellants as it was found in the master bedroom which the couple occupied.
— Bernama
