The court upheld the conviction for drug trafficking, affirming that possession need not be exclusive, and established that pointing out locations during police inquiry constituted valid evidence under Section 27 of the Evidence Act 1950.

Background

[1] The appellant - Siew Yoke Keong ("Siew") was retried in the High Court on the charge of trafficking in 1,583.4 grams of dangerous drugs (1,452.1 grams of heroin and 131.3 grams of monoacetylmorphines) on 13 August 97, at about 1.50am at house No 3, Lot 6862 - A, Lorong 3D, Kampung Baru Subang, in the District of Petaling, in the State of Selangor, an offence under s 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (DDA) and punishable under s 39B(2) of the . The retrial was pursuant to the decision of the Court of Appeal on 4 January 2005 ordering that the conviction and sentence on Siew be set aside and that he be retried before another judge. At the conclusion of the retrial the High Court found Siew guilty, convicted him and sentenced him to death. His appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed and the conviction and sentence on him was affirmed. Siew preferred an appeal to this Court.

The Prosecution's Case

[2] The evidence adduced by the prosecution is as follows Acting on information received on 13 August 1997 at about 12.30am, DSP Yap Seng Hock (PW6) and a team of police personnel which included Sgt Major Mohd Kasim b Awang Noh (PW5) waited in ambush in the vicinity of house No 7 Jalan 3, Taman Subang. At about 1.10am on the same date, a car arrived in front of the house. The driver was the only person in the car The car did not stop. It proceeded to the end of the road, and about 2-3 minutes later, it turned back and stopped in front of the house. The driver - who was Siew, got out of the car PW6 and his team pounced on Siew, identified himself as a police officer and arrested Siew. At that time Siew was holding a black sling bag. In that bag, PW6 found a wallet, Siew's identity card and a bunch of three keys Siew was whisked away and taken to Balai Polis Kg Baru Subang.

[3] At the police station, PW6 administered the caution under s 37A of the DDA to Siew. PW6 then questioned Siew. Upon conclusion of the questioning, Siew led PW6 and his team to a single storey semi-detached house at No 3, Lot 6862-A, Lorong 3-D, Kg Baru Subang (the first house). On arrival at the first house, PW6 found the front gate to be locked with a "solex" padlock. Using one of the keys found in the black sling bag seized from Siew earlier, PW6, managed to unlock the padlock. PW6 and his team took Siew into the compound of the first house. PW6 saw that the grille door to the house was also locked with another "solex" padlock. Using the same key which was used to unlock the gate padlock, PW6 managed to unlock the grille door padlock. PW6 found the sliding front door to be closed but not locked. PW6 slid open the door and entered the house. The lights in the living room were on. PW6 began his search of the house. PW6 went to the first room on the left. It was not locked. He switched on the lights and found that there was no furniture in the room except for a big mattress

[4] PW6 then went to the second room. He found it locked. According to PW6, he asked Siew where the room key was PW6 said he found a bunch of eight keys on the long fluorescent lamp which was fixed above the door to the bathroom. That bunch of keys was pointed to him by Siew. Learned counsel representing Siew in the High Court objected to that evidence on the ground that it was not evidence which led to discovery as Siew had been arrested by then and the act of pointing amounted to a statement. Learned counsel contended that a trial within a trial should have been c