Ex-technician to hang for drug trafficking

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Mohd Moriff being escorted out of the High Court by police personnel after he was found guilty of trafficking 61.21 grammes of methamphetamine two years ago. — Bernama photo

KUANTAN: The High Court here yesterday sentenced to death a former technician who was found guilty of trafficking 61.21 grammes of methamphetamine two years ago.

Judge Datuk Seri Mariana Yahya sentenced Mohd Moriff Zulkarnaim, 30, after finding the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubts against the charge.

Mohd Moriff committed the offence at his rented house at Lorong Sekilau 31 here, where the drugs were found in a bag along with a wallet containing personal documents of the accused, at 11.30am on Nov 1, 2016.

In her judgment, Mariana dismissed the defence’s claim that there were two more individuals known as ‘Boyot’ and ‘Mek Ti’ who came there often because during the raid only the accused was in the house.

“The accused said the house was rented by a man named Md Shah and Mek Ti was Md Shah’s friend and he had met Mek Ti many times. But surprisingly, when he did not know Mek Ti’s real name the court believed that his existence was only fictitious,” she said.

She also dismissed the accused claim that the house was rented by Md Shah for his employees working at his eatery nearby. But the accused did not know where Md Shah lived despite claiming he had known the man for five or six years, nor did he know the number of workers Md Shah had.

Mariana also added that the claim that Md Shah was the one who rented the house was also nullified by the houseowner’s statement confirming the accused was the one paying the rent for several months before the raid was conducted.

“No employee of Md Shah was brought to court to support his testimony and there is no evidence that Md Shah is the tenant of the house which gives the inference that the house was inhabited by the accused,” she said.

At the trial, the prosecution led by deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Asyraf Md Kamal produced seven witnesses while the defence represented by lawyer Ghazali Ismail called upon three witnesses including the accused to give evidence under oath. – Bernama