Four Taiwanese men freed of drug trafficking charge, escape gallows

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JOHOR BAHARU: Four Taiwanese men escaped the gallows when the High Court here yesterday acquitted and discharged them of trafficking in 43.033gm of the nimetazepam drug three years ago.

Judicial Commissioner M Gunalan made the ruling after finding that the defence had succeeded in raising doubts against the prosecution’s case.

The Taiwanese nationals — Chung ShengWen, 39, Chang Yen Min, 38, Chang Yun Sheng, 34, and Wu Sheng Yuan, 34 — were jointly charged with committing the offence at the Tebrau 2 Industrial area here about 5.30am on March 22, 2009.

They were charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act which carried the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

The four men were arrested during a police raid at a factory where several items, including tools, chemical and machine, believed for drug processing, were found.

In the judgement, Gunalan said that the prosecution had failed to prove there was prima facie in the case and also that the accused were involved in the drug processing activity.

On Dec 27, 2010, the court had acquitted them of the charge without calling for their defence.

The prosecution appealed to the Federal Court which then ordered the four Taiwanese to enter their defence.

The defence trial began on Dec 2 last year.

Head of the Johor prosecution unit, Umar Saifuddin Jaafar, prosecuted, while lawyers GK Sritharan and Datuk Naran Singh, represented the Taiwanese nationals. — Bernama