Fisherman Jailed 12 Years, 10 Strokes Of The Cane For Cocaine Possession

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 17 (Bernama) -- A fisherman was sentenced to 12 years in jail and was ordered to be whipped 10 times after he pleaded guilty to an amended charge of possessing 1.3 kg of cocaine. The Court of Appeal's three-man panel comprising Justices Kamaludin Md Said, Hashim Hamzah and Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali ordered Ismetch Mohamad Rosli Rosli (Ismetch Mohamad Rosli bin Rosli) to start his jail sentence from the date of arrest, which was Nov 4, 2016. Ismetch, 30, had accepted the prosecution’s offer to have his charge reduced from drug trafficking to possession. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by the High Court for trafficking the drug at a customs inspection area of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 6.45 pm on Nov 4, 2016. Ismetch’s lawyer Gurubachan Singh Johal, in mitigation, asked the court to impose eight years jail sentence on his client as he (Ismetch) has been in prison for six years and has repented and wants to carry on with his life. Deputy public prosecutor Asmah Musa, however, said public interest would be best served if the sentencing trend of between 12 to 16 years jail term is applied considering the weight of the drug involved. A message must be sent to deter a person from committing the offence, she said, adding that the drug that was in Ismetch's possession was one of the most expensive type. Meanwhile, the same court upheld a Myanmar worker's death sentence for murdering his colleague, Thu Ni, in the worker's quarters at Syarikat Shin Poly Auto Sdn Bhd, in Jalan Bukit Kemuning, Shah Alam, Selangor between 11.30 pm on June 18, 2016 and 1.10 am on June 19, 2016. According to the charge sheet, Htwee Nu Maung committed the offence with another person who is still at large. Justice Hashim, who delivered the court’s decision, said circumstantial evidence pointed to the appellant's (Htwee) involvement in the victim's death and that his appeal against the conviction and death sentence is dismissed. Htwee, 42, was found guilty by the High Court on Sept 10, 2019. According to the facts of the case, a prosecution witness saw Htwee and another man in a drunk state and their clothes had blood stains. The witness also saw Htwee holding a knife and the victim lying on the floor of the room. Htwee was represented by lawyer K.Viknesvaran, while deputy public prosecutors Parvin Hameedah and Nurul Farhana Khalid appeared for the prosecution. -- BERNAMA