Single mother jailed for life for drug trafficking
KOTA KINABALU: A fragrance and cosmetics shop assistant, who is a single mother, escaped the gallows but sentenced to life imprisonment by the High Court here yesterday for trafficking in 1,193 grams of syabu, two years ago.
Justice Datuk Nurchaya Hj Arshad found Romana Diong, 36, guilty of the charge under Section 39B (2A) of the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) 1952.
The initial charge was under Section 39B (1) (a) of the DDA 1952 which carries the mandatory death sentence, upon conviction.
However, the new law that comes into effect on March 15, provides for any person who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death or imprisonment for life and shall, if he is not sentenced to death, be punished with whipping of not less than fifteen strokes.
In her reserved decision, the judge ruled that the defence had failed to cast doubt to rebut the presumption on the balance of probabilities in this case.
In passing the sentence, the court held that the defence's version had been properly considered and tested with the prosecution's version at the close of defence case to satisfy the maximum evaluation and beyond reasonable doubt test to justify the conviction pursuant to Section 182A of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The accused, who was represented by counsel Goldam Hamid, was arrested for trafficking in the syabu at a roadside along Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens here on December 14, 2016.
On September 4, the accused, who was the sole defence witness, testified that before she was arrested, she was at her workplace when her childhood friend, one Nursandi or Sandy, came to the shop with one unknown woman to visit her.
She explained that after five minutes, Nursandi left alone while that unknown woman was still there, listening to the accused promoting the shop's products to her. However, the woman then left after buying some products from the shop.
The accused said Nursandi came back to look for the woman, but the accused said the woman had left.
The accused further testified that Nursandi told her that the woman had forgotten something and asked the accused to give it to the woman and insisted that the accused must help the woman as the woman was conceiving.
She, who opted to testify on oath from the witness dock, also said that she then closed the shop in order to help Nursandi. She then followed Nursandi to the third floor of the building where she worked and waited for Nursandi in front of an elevator.
After that Nursandi came with a plastic bag and they proceeded to the ground floor before she went out from the building to pass the plastic bag to the said woman who was already looking at her.
Unfortunately, she said at that time, the police caught her and when she asked why, the police said she had drugs with her which was inside the plastic bag.
The accused said Nursandi, who always came to the shop to rest like once in four days, was before this staying in Kinarut but after getting married, Nursandi moved to Sepanggar.
It was revealed in the trial that this person by the name of Sandy had alleged involvement with drugs syndicate but the police have not managed to arrest Sandy.
It was also said in the trial that the accused's family had tried to locate Nursandi in Kinarut as the family also knew Nursandi but since the incident happened Nursandi was nowhere to be found or seen.
The prosecution had called five witnesses to testify in the trial.
After the proceedings, the accused, who could not stand her emotion, broke down and sobbed in the court saying that she did not commit the offence.
The police escort then helped to carry the accused, who burst into tears to the court's lockup and she continued sobbing there. Also seen in court were her mother, child and brother.