A MAN who sold cannabis oil for medicinal purposes escaped the gallows after the Federal Court today allowed his appeal to set aside his conviction for two counts of drug trafficking.

A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, however, substituted Muhammad Lukman Mohamad’s charges to possession under Section 9 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. 

The court found Lukman, 31, guilty for drug possession and sentenced him to five years’ jail for each charge, which were to run concurrently from December 7, 2015, the date of his arrest.

Tengku Maimun, who presided with Federal Court judges Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, heard Lukman’s appeal in respect of his conviction and death sentence for the first and second charges.

Section 9 of the Act provides a penalty of a maximum of five years’ jail and/or fine or both.

In August 2018, the Shah Alam High Court found Lukman guilty on three charges of trafficking 3,010ml of delta 9 Tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis extract), 1,422g of delta 9 Tetrahydrocannabinol and 279.81g of cannabis.

The offences were committed at a house in Bandar Mahkota, Banting, Kuala Langat, Selangor on December 7, 2015.

The Court of Appeal last year upheld the death sentence on the first two charges but reduced the third charge to possession and sentenced Lukman to seven years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane.

Counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said Lukman will be freed once the whipping is carried out. He said his client has completed his jail term with a one-third remission.

Hisyam earlier submitted the two charges faced by Lukman cannot stand because the prosecution could not prove the weight and volume of the drugs as stated in the charges, as the chemist did not carry out a quantitative analysis of the drugs.

Hisyam also argued the admission of the exhibits was wrong in law because they were tendered in absence of the trial judge.

He said the conduct of Lukman in selling the cannabis oil was not caught within the ambit of the Act as he was selling it as medicinal oil.

Deputy public prosecutor Samihah Razali submitted the chemist did not carry out the quantitative analysis as he said it was unnecessary to do so. – Bernama, February 17, 2021.