Syed Agil Barakbah SCJ:

The four appellants were tried and convicted of an offence under s. 39B(1)(c) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and were each sentenced to death by the High Court Judge, Penang. The charge against them reads:

That you on 20 February 1981, at about 1.30 pm beside the Ambassadress Hotel, Jalan Bangan Luar, in the District of Butterworth, in the State of Penang, in furtherance of the common intention of you all, did on your own behalf do an act preparatory to trafficking in a dangerous drug to wit 1,871.6 grammes of heroin, by arranging to deliver for sale such drug, in contravention of s. 39B(1)(c) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (Revised 1980) and that you have thereby committed an offence punishable under s. 39B(2) of the same act read with s. 34 of the Penal Code

Being dissatisfied with their conviction and sentence, they have appealed to the Supreme Court.

Before dealing with the grounds of appeal, we would like to touch on the salient facts of the case as accepted by the trial Judge. This was one of the cases where an officer of the anti-dadah section of the Royal Malaysian Police, Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur, Balbir Singh (PW3), worked together with