SINGAPORE: 2 MEN CONVICTED OF DRUG TRAFFICKING ESCAPE DEATH ROW AFTER ACQUITTAL BY APEX COURT

December 7, 2018:

Two men convicted of drug trafficking escaped the gallows on 5 December 2018, after the Court of Appeal found them not guilty and acquitted them in a split 2-1 decision.
Mohamed Affandi Rosli and Mohamad Fadzli Ahmad had appealed against their convictions in the High Court — Affandi for trafficking 132.82g of diamorphine, also known as heroin, and Fadzli for abetting by instigating the trafficking.
Both were given the mandatory death penalty for the offences.
In a written judgment issued on 5 December Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Senior Judge Chao Hick Tin granted both appeals.
They found that the prosecution had failed to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, the chain of custody of the drug exhibits from the time they were seized to the time the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) analysed them, such that the drug exhibits seized were the substances eventually analysed.