SINGAPORE: The Court of Appeal has dismissed a criminal motion by the lawyers of a convicted drug trafficker to set aside his death sentence and reopen his case in the High Court for a re-trial, given proposed changes to the mandatory death penalty for drug traffickers.
Cheong Chun Yin, a Malaysian, was convicted in 2010 of trafficking 2.7 kilogrammes of heroin into Singapore.
Cheong had arrived from Myanmar and delivered a black trolley bag containing the drugs.
According to Cheong's lawyers, Mr M Ravi and Mr Louis Joseph, Cheong believed he was carrying gold bars, and did not know the bag contained drugs.
They added that Cheong was only a mule acting for two other masterminds who have yet to be nabbed, and that he had tried to cooperate with the authorities.
Under the proposed amendments, the court will have the discretion to sentence a drug trafficker to life imprisonment and caning, as opposed to the current mandatory death penalty, if the accused is found to have met two specific and tightly-controlled requirements.
Firstly, the trafficker must have only played the role of courier, and had no role in any other activity related to the supply or distribution of drugs.
Secondly, discretion will only apply if, having satisfied the first requirement, either the trafficker has cooperated with the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in a substantive way, or has a mental disability which substantially impairs his understanding of the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Source: channelnewsasia.com, October 15, 2012
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