JUDGMENT

Pajan Singh Gill JCA:

The appellant, Chan Chor Shuh was charged with an offence of trafficking a total of 36.72 grammes in weight of heroin and monoacetylmorphine on 7 January 1994 in contravention of s. 39B(1)(a) punishable under s. 39B(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. The High Court at Kuantan convicted him, and sentenced him to death. We allowed the appeal and quashed the conviction. We now give our reasons.

The decision in this case was given in 1996 well before the Federal Court case of Muhammed Hassan v. PP[1998] 2 CLJ 170, which decided in 1997, that it was wrong to rely on a presumption of possession of a dangerous drug under s. 37(d) of the Act, to raise a presumption of trafficking, of the drug in question. In the instant case the learned trial judge in hindsight was wrong in invoking a "double presumption" test.

The other grave infirmity in the judgment was the learned trial judge's treatment of the defence case especially in the context of the role of the informer in the unfolding of the prosecution narrative.

The facts showed that acting on information a party of police personnel led by ASP Mohd. Luthfi Ismail bin Abdullah (SP5), and seven others proceeded