A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Justice Kamaludin Said ordered Ismetch Rosli Rosli’s jail term to begin from Nov 4, 2106, when he was arrested.
The others on the bench were justices Hashim Hamzah and Nazlan Ghazali.
Earlier, Ismetch’s lawyer, Gurbachan Singh Johar, informed the bench that his client was accepting the prosecution’s offer to have his charge reduced from trafficking to possession.
The High Court had found Ismetch guilty of trafficking the drugs at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport customs checkpoint in Sepang at about 6.45pm on Nov 4, 2016.
Gurbachan, in mitigation, called for the court to impose an eight-year jail term, submitting that a longer custodial sentence would hamper his 30-year-old client’s rehabilitation process.
However, deputy public prosecutor Asmah Musa said public interest would be best served if the sentencing trend applied corresponded with the weight of the drug involved.
“Would-be offenders must know that one must lead an honest life. The drug that was in his possession was also expensive,” Asmah said.
The offence for possession carries a minimum five-year and maximum 30-year jail term and a mandatory minimum 10 strokes of the rotan.
In another case, the same bench dismissed an appeal by a Myanmar worker, Atwee Maung, for the murder of his colleague, Thu Nu, six years ago.
Hashim, who pronounced the verdict, said that after reviewing both the written and oral submissions, there was no merit in the appeal.
He said the prosecution had proved the elements of the crime by presenting strong circumstantial evidence.
Atwee, 42, together with another person still at large, had committed the offence at the living quarters of Syarikat Shin Poly Auto Sdn Bhd in Bukit Kemuning, Shah Alam, between 11.30am on June 18, 2016 and 1.10am the following day.
Earlier, lawyer K Vikneswaran submitted that the death took place after a sudden fight broke out during a drinking session.
“The trial judge also erred when he did not consider all the defences available under the exceptions to murder in the Penal Code,” he said.
He urged the bench to find Atwee guilty of culpable homicide, which carries only a jail term.
Deputy public prosecutor Parvin Hameedah Natchiar called for the conviction and death sentence to be affirmed as a post-mortem report revealed that the victim died due to multiple slash wounds and loss of blood.