PUTRAJAYA: After being free for nearly four years, two unemployed men are back in remand following the Court of Appeal's decision yesterday to reverse their acquittal and have them make their defence on a drug trafficking charge.

A three-man bench led by Justice Datuk Gopal Sri Ram said the conduct of both men fleeing in different directions when police officers approached and identified themselves, combined with other circumstantial evidence, was cogent enough to infer that there was mens rea (guilty knowledge and willfulness) of possession of 976g of cannabis.

Mohd Bandar Shah Nordin, 30, and Muhamad Hanafis Hasnan, 31, were handcuffed and ordered to be held under remand by the court, which had ordered that their case be remitted back to the Ipoh High Court, for them to make their defence.

On June 23, 2004, the duo were acquitted and discharged by the High Court on the drug trafficking charge without having to make their defence at the end of the prosecution's case.

They were accused of committing the offence at the Tapah rest area of the North-South Expressway at 10pm on Jan 24, 2002.
Mohd Bandar was sitting on a motorcycle and Muhamad Hanafis was standing next to the machine and behaving in a suspicious manner when the police approached them and found the drugs in a black sling bag in the carrier of the motorcycle.

They ran in different directions but were caught by six policemen who had chased them.

In allowing the prosecution's appeal to set aside the acquittal, Sri Ram said from the trial judge's evaluation of circumstantial evidence, he found nothing to incriminate the two men.

"We are of the view that there was no proper evaluation by the trial judge of the circumstantial evidence laid out by the prosecution," he said.

Mohd Bandar and Muhamad Hanafis were represented by lawyer Gurbachan Singh while DPP K. Mangai appeared for the prosecution. - Bernama