On Thursday (18 Aug), a Singaporean man and his Malaysian girlfriend were brought before the court in Johor, Malaysia for drug trafficking. If they are found guilty, they either face the death penalty or life imprisonment with whipping of not less than 15 strokes.
Reportedly, Loh Kok Kiong, 49, and Soh Yong Xin, 32, were jointly arrested in a house at 15 Jalan Forest City in Gelang Patah for possessing drugs at 11:15am last Tuesday (9 Aug).
While Singapore was busy celebrating National Day, one fellow decided to contravene the law elsewhere and make it to the headlines for the wrong reasons, nice.
Allegedly, they trafficked more than 9.6kg of methamphetamine and possessed 666g of ketamine.
Just an FYI, trafficking more than 30 grammes of said drugs is an automatic death penalty for anyone in Singapore.
Loh was slapped with another charge of trafficking 139g of nimetazepam at a house in Taman Sutera, and an additional count of drug abuse for injecting methamphetamine into his body at the Iskandar Puteri District Police Headquarters Narcotics Division.
In total, Loh has six charges to answer for, while Soh has two.
As one might expect from people who possessed a large quantity of drugs, the couple pleaded not guilty to possessing ketamine, and Loh pleaded not guilty to the charge of ingesting methamphetamine as well.
They did not record pleas for their other charges.
According to the Malaysian media, the couple were not offered bail as they had no lawyers.
Under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drug Act 1952, it is illegal to traffic or offer to traffic in a dangerous drug, or abet someone for the purposes of trafficking a dangerous drug.
Given that the trafficked amount greatly exceeds what is listed in the provisions of the Dangeorus Drug Act, the couple may face the death penalty or life imprisonment and punished with whipping of not less than 15 strokes upon conviction.
The difference between Malaysia and Singapore’s drug abuse laws is that Singapore has specified quantities for the drugs which dictates the severity of the punishment, regardless of whether it is for consumption or trafficking, while Malaysia metes out the death penalty for drug trafficking only.
At worst, a criminal convicted of drug consumption will be liable to imprisonment for life, or a jail term of at least five years and a whipping of not less than ten strokes under Section 39A.
The next scheduled hearing for this case in front of the Malaysian High Court is set for 20 September, pending chemistry and pathology reports.
Featured Image: Bernama News