A FORMER international school teacher has escaped the gallows after the Federal Court substituted her drug trafficking charge with that of possession.

A three-member bench, chaired by Court of Appeal president Rohana Yusuf, yesterday allowed Suhailah Abdullah’s appeal to set aside her conviction and death sentence for drug trafficking.

Instead, the court sentenced her to 10 years’ jail from the date of her arrest, May 27, 2013, on a reduced charge of drug possession.

Lawyer K. Rakhbir Singh told Bernama that Suhailah, 48, is expected to be released from Kajang Prison as she has already served the jail sentence.

“She broke into tears after the Federal Court allowed her appeal,” he said, adding that his client also thanked the judges for giving her a new lease of life.

Rakhbir said the court found that Suhailah’s conviction for drug trafficking was unsafe.

The proceeding before Rohana and Federal Court judges Abdul Rahman Sebli and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim was conducted virtually via Zoom yesterday. 

Suhailah was charged in the Kota Kinabalu High Court in 2013 with trafficking in the drug at the arrival hall of Terminal One of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport at 11.15am on May 27, 2013. 

She arrived at the airport from New Delhi with a transit stop in Singapore.

The High Court ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case on the trafficking charge, instead found that the prosecution had proved a prima facie case on drug possession and ordered Suhailah to enter her defence on the latter.

Suhailah, however, opted to plead guilty to the drug possession charge and was sentenced to 14 years’ jail.

On appeal by the prosecution, the Court of Appeal on July 18, 2016 ordered Suhailah to enter her defence on the drug trafficking charge.

On June 23, 2017, the High Court convicted her of the drug trafficking charge and sentenced her to death.

She lost her appeal at the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the High Court’s decision on August 6, 2018.

In the appeal proceedings, Rakhbir had submitted that Suhailah was tricked into believing two Nigerians from New Delhi, India, who asked her to carry a luggage containing new clothes to be handed over to their Nigerian friend in Malaysia.

Having checked the bag, Suhailah agreed to carry the bag, unbeknown to her that she was carrying the drug, which was secretly hidden in the bag.

Deputy public prosecutors Zaki Asyraf Zubir and Nahra Dollah appeared for the prosecution. – Bernama, September 2, 2021.