GEORGE TOWN: A 27-year-old technician escaped the gallows when he was freed of a drug trafficking charge by the High Court here today.
Judge Datuk Azmi Abdullah acquitted and discharged Ahamad Asyraf Mansor of trafficking 1.6kg of cannabis in 2014 after the defence counsel succeeded in raising reasonable doubt in the case.
Ahamad was charged with committing the offence while driving along Jalan Kampung Guar, Tasek Gelugor at 1.30pm on Oct 7, 2014. He was detained by police during a road block.
He was charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, punishable under Section 39B(2) of the same act, which carried the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
Azmi, in his judgment, said that Ahamad had left his car unused in the village for sometime before he actually used it on the day he was arrested.
He said at the roadblock, the accused never showed any attempt to escape from the police, which indicated that he had no idea that the drug was inside the car.
He added that although it was the accused's car, it has been found that the car was also accessible by others, hence there was a chance that the drug was placed even before he took away his car.
"Furthermore, the brother of the accused admitted of seeing the plastic bag, which contained the drug, even before the accused had used the car." Azmi said in his ruling.
Based on that, Azmi freed Ahamad of the charge.
As soon as the verdict was passed, Ahamd's family members broke into tears of joy. He then hugged his family members and relatives who attended the court proceedings.
Soon after, he stormed out of the courtroom and hopped on to a motorcycle with his friend and rode away.