EDGAR JOSEPH JR SCJ

(DELIVERING THE GROUNDS OF JUDGMENT OF THE COURT)

This appellant and his wife, Ma Kelthom bte Idris, were jointly charged and tried in the High Court at Kota Bharu upon a charge that they did on their own behalves on the afternoon of 1 February 1986, at an unnumbered house at Jalan Masjid, Kampong Melayu, Gua Musang, in the state of Kelantan, traffic in dangerous drugs, to wit, 592.6g of cannabis, and had thereof committed an offence in contravention of s 39B(l)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (‘the Act’).

At the conclusion of the trial, the wife was acquitted and discharged but the appellant was convicted and sentenced to death and against that conviction he had appealed.

The case against the appellant and his wife was this:

On 2 January 1986, as a result of a tip-off, alleging drug trafficking at an unnumbered dwelling house at Jalan Masjid, Gua Musang (‘the house’), at about 1pm, a police party which comprised Insp Mat Yusoff Akop (PW4), Sgt Abu Bakar bin Abdullah, DPC Masdan Kahat (PW2), DPC Mohd Hashim bin Mohd Zin (PW8) and PC Azman bin Ithin departed from Gua Musang police station on three motor cycles for the house.

On arrival at the house, Insp Mat Yusoff