THE Singapore Court of Appeal has acquitted Malaysian G. Punithan of drug trafficking, after considering new evidence, thus expunging the death sentence for his earlier conviction.

Punithan had been sentenced to death in May 2020, the first through remote hearing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the course of investigations, he was identified by one of two drug couriers as the man behind a drugs transaction that took place on October 28, 2011.

Previously, Punithan had on October 12, 2011, introduced the two couriers to facilitate an impending drug transaction, at the West Coast McDonald’s car park.

“In this appeal, we were not concerned about the events that took place on October 28 in relation to the couriers,” Justice Tay Yong Kwang said in delivering the decision.

The full judgment was released on the court’s website earlier today.

Besides Justice Tay, the case was heard before Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justice Andrew Phang.

“The central question in this appeal was whether there was such a tripartite meeting on October 12 because that was the link alleged between the appellant and the drug transaction involving the couriers that took place on October 28.

“The prosecution alleged that it was ‘pursuant to this meeting’ that the couriers carried out the said drug transaction.

“It was therefore incumbent on the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the ‘alleged introductory meeting’ did take place in order to prove the common intention of the appellant and the couriers to traffic in the drugs,” the judge said.

According to Judge Tay, there were discrepancies in evidence as to the date and the time of day of the ‘alleged introductory meeting’ at the previous 2014 and 2018 trials.

Punithan adduced fresh evidence including investigation statements from the couriers, a telco call trace report for the phone of one of the couriers, and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) travel movement records of one of the couriers.

Punithan was represented by a team of lawyers from K&L Gates Straits Law LLC, led by Senior Counsel Narayanan Sreenivasan. – Bernama, October 31, 2022.