The Court of Appeal commutes Muhammad Hafiz Daniel Abdullah’s death sentence to 30 years in prison and 24 strokes of the cane for drug trafficking.
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal here today commuted the death sentence imposed on a former bodyguard convicted of three counts of drug trafficking to 30 years’ imprisonment.
A three-man bench comprising Justices Datuk Azman Abdullah, Datuk Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz and Datuk Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid imposed 30 years imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane on Muhammad Hafiz Daniel Abdullah for each charge, with the sentences ordered to run concurrently from the date of his arrest on July 3, 2020.
However, only 24 strokes of the cane will be carried out, in accordance with the law which limits the maximum number of strokes that can be imposed on an offender.
The court dismissed Muhammad Hafiz’s appeal against his conviction but allowed his appeal to set aside the death sentence imposed by the High Court and substituted it with a prison sentence of 30 years and whipping.
Delivering the unanimous decision, Justice Hayatul Akmal said the issue before the appellate court was whether the High Court’s delay of about three years in preparing its grounds of judgment, coupled with serious misdirections has undermined the integrity of the judgment and thereby caused prejudice to the appellant.
She said, in the absence of cogent evidence to the contrary, the appellate court ought to presume that the High Court judge had duly discharged his judicial functions and arrived at his conclusions only after considering the totality of the evidence before the court.
She said delay by itself, without proof of any prejudice is insufficient to displace that presumption.
She further said that the appellant failed to show there was an actual prejudice on him due to the delay of grounds of judgment.
Muhammad Daniel, 42, was charged with three charges of drug trafficking and one charge under the Poisons Act 1952.
On December 13, 2022, the High Court found him guilty of trafficking 10,865.9 grammes of methamphetamine, 27.3 grammes of heroin and 94.6 grammes of monoacetylmorphine and sentenced him to death. The High Court also sentenced him to two years jail for possession of 10,000 grammes of Etizolam.
The offences were committed at a premise in Pearl Suria Residence, Jalan Klang Lama, Kuala Lumpur, on July 6, 2020.
During the proceedings before the Court of Appeal, Muhammad Hafiz was represented by lawyers Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Low Wei Loke and Naizatul Zamrina Karizaman, while Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz appeared for the prosecution.
Naizatul Zamrina told the media that the Court of Appeal had also ordered the two-year jail term imposed for the offence under the Poisons Act to run concurrently with the 30-year imprisonment sentence imposed for the drug trafficking offences.
