Repeat syabu offender does not remember judge who sentenced him ten years ago

KOTA KINABALU: A mechanic did not remember that a judge who imposed eight years’ jail plus four whippings on him yesterday for the fifth time of consuming syabu, was the magistrate who sentenced him ten years ago.

When the prosecution tendered Asrul Nordin’s previous conviction records, it drew Sessions Court judge Noor Hafizah Mohd Salim’s attention, when she saw the document and recalled that the accused’s first conviction was before her and she was the magistrate at that time.

Judge: You don’t remember 10 years ago your case was heard before me?”

The accused: I do not remember.

Asrul further said he also did not remember that the judge was the presiding magistrate back in 2009 when he was first convicted for the offence.

Apart from the two punishments meted out by the judge, she also ordered the accused to be placed under police supervision for two years.

The accused admitted to consuming syabu and was arrested at the Tuaran police station on August 2, 2018.

He had pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 39C (2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which carries a jail term of up to 13 years and a maximum six whippings and to be placed under police supervision for not more than three years, upon conviction, when the case came up for trial yesterday.

Deputy public prosecutor Nur Faezah Jafry told the court that the 32-year-old accused’s urine sample was taken at the said police station and the result for the preliminary test turned out to be positive for syabu abuse and further investigation revealed that the accused had four previous convictions on a similar offence.

In pleading for a lenient sentence, National Legal Aid Foundation counsel Aaron Augustine, who represented the accused, submitted that he believed the accused, who told him that he (the accused) had repented as he had regretted what he had done and requested for his custodial sentence to run from the date of his arrest.

The counsel also submitted that before this the accused had worked as a mechanic and the accused also claimed that he was supporting his child aged four and his 55-year-old father, who is suffering from stroke since four years ago.

In reply, the prosecution urged the court to impose a heavier sentence taking into account that the accused had been convicted repeatedly on a similar offence.

The prosecution explained that the accused’s first conviction was in 2009, the second time was in 2013 and twice in 2015, where three of them were under Section 15 (1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and one under Section 39C (1) of the same Act.

She argued that by seeing from the previous conviction records, it showed that the accused was not remorseful with what he had done.

The court ordered the accused to serve his jail term from the date of his arrest on August 2, 2018.