30 November 2012 :

man was saved from the gallows for the second time after the Federal Court, in Malaysia, allowed his appeal and set aside his conviction and death sentence for trafficking in 197,249.9 grams of “Cannabis” almost 12 years ago. Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, His Lordship Tan Sri Panglima Richard Malanjum, who chaired the three-man panel, however sentenced Soorya Kumar a/l Narayanan and Moorthy a/l Neerapan both to 20 years imprisonment and 10 strokes after ruling that the prosecution have proven beyond reasonable doubt the case against them for possession of the said drugs.  Soorya Kumar previously had been saved from the gallows some three years ago when the Court of Appeal had unanimously substituted another previous conviction and death sentence for trafficking in 138,936 grams of “Cannabis” and instead reduced that charge to possession only, sentencing him to 20 years of imprisonment and 15 strokes. Taking note if his previous conviction, the Federal Court ruled that the new sentence passed in this case will only start to run after the completion of the previous sentence. Meanwhile, Moorthy will only serve the new sentence passed as he was not involved in the previous conviction together with Soorya Kumar. The sentence of 10 strokes of the rattan will also not be imposed on Moorthy as he is already above 50 years of age.