The Star

MALAYSIA: Court of Appeal frees man on death row

A 32-year-old man, who had been sentenced to death for trafficking in more than 1.5kg of heroin, walked out a free man yesterday after the Court of Appeal acquitted him when it set aside the sentence against him.

 A 3-man Bench, led by Justice Gopal Sri Ram, quashed the conviction handed down by a Kota Baru High Court 4 years ago against Toh Su Kuan and ordered that he be released.

 The former mechanic had been charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 with trafficking in 1,584.93gms of heroin at the Pekan Rantau Panjang bus station in Kelantan on Feb 4, 1996, at 2pm.

 He was initially arrested by police following a tip-off that he had a revolver with him.

 The police, however, did not find the weapon after a thorough body search. Instead, a total of 356 packages of heroin were found strapped onto different parts of his body.

 On Nov 8, 1998, the then trial judge Justice Arifin Zakaria found Toh guilty of trafficking the drugs and handed down a death sentence.

 Ruling in Tohs favour, Justice Sri Ram, who sat with Justices Abdul Kadir Sulaiman and Alauddin Mohd Sheriff, said the trial judge had erred when he concluded that the appellant actually knew the packages contained heroin.