JUDGMENT

Edgar Joseph Jr. SCJ:

This appellant was prosecuted in the High Court at Johor Bahru, before Judicial Commissioner James Foong (as he then was) upon the following charge:

That you, Gooi Loo Seng I.C. No. 4629774 (B) on 20 August 1986 at about 10.00 p.m. in a room in house No. 89, Jalan Baldu 2, Taman Sentosa, Johor Bahru, in the State of Johor, were found trafficking in a dangerous drug, to wit, heroin, having a net weight, in all, of 22.469 gm., on your own behalf, and that you have accordingly committed an offence under s. 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 , and punishable under s. 39B(2) of the same Act .

At the conclusion of the trial, he was convicted and sentenced to death and against that conviction he had appealed.

According to the evidence led by the prosecution, on 20 August 1986 at about 9.30 p.m., as a result of information received, Inspector Nordin Kadir (PW. 6) led two of his men, Detective Corporal Muda Mohd. (PW. 7) and Detective Constable Wahid (not called though identified), to a place near a public telephone booth, in Jalan Cokmar, Taman Sri Tebrau, Johore Bahru, and took up ambush position there. A short while later, a motor car bearing registration No. JAL 1207 pulled up nearby. The driver - a male Chinese - identified as the appellant, alighted and leaned against the car. It was at this point of time that Inspector Nordin and his men emerged and approached the appellant, identified themselves, and proceeded to search his person and his car but recovered nothing incriminating.

On the request of Inspector Nordin, the appellant then led the police party to his place of abode, which was a bedroom he had rented and comprised in the ground floor of No. 89, Jalan Baldu, a double storey dwelling house. It was common ground that the appellant was not the only person who slept in this bedroom, for his girlfriend, a bar girl named Tan Ah Kwai (PW. 4), also did so, at least, about twice a week.

Upon entering the bedroom, Inspector Nordin found no one in and instructed Wahid to conduct a search of it. So, Wahid approached a plastic cupboard, but before he could proceed to search it, it was said that the appellant prevented him from doing so, and somewhat obligingly, himself recovered from the bottom of the plastic cupboard, in between some clothes, two newspaper packages, which he promptly handed over to Inspector Nordin, who, on opening the first package, found enclosed therein, 15 plastic packets containing a granular substance suspected to be heroin. Similarly, on opening the second package, Inspector Nordin found in it a plastic packet containing a granular substance suspected to be heroin. During the search he conducted, Wahid recovered from the top portion of the plastic cupboard three empty plastic packets and the appellant's passport and a sum of RM1,039 in cash. Inspector Nordin then took possession of all the exhibits aforesaid, arrested the appellant, and brought him to the police station, where the exhibits were properly marked.

Subsequently, the suspected heroin was examined and analysed by the Government Chemist who confirmed Inspector Nordin's suspicions by certifying it was indeed heroin, a dangerous drug within the meaning of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 ("the Act") weighing in all 22.469 gms.

A second search of the same bedroom conducted by the police during the small hours of the morning of 21 August 1986, resulted in the recovery of a Dunhill briefcase containing RM5,950 in cash, the property of the appellant.

No women's clothing or personal effects were however recovered from the bedroom during either search.

Going back a little, we must interpolate to mention, that the version of the prosecution regarding the events during the initial search in the bedroom was glaringly at variance with the contents of a contemporary document, to wit, a Search List, prepared and signed by Inspector Nordin himself, at 10.00 p.m. on 28 August 1986, - in other words, immediately, after th