Foreigner’s appeal against death sentence dismissed
KUCHING: An Indian national lost his final bid at the Federal Court to have his death sentence for drug trafficking set aside.
In a unanimous decision yesterday, the five-judge panel affirmed the capital punishment imposed on Ramasamy Mahendran, 44.
The judges ruled that there was no merit in his appeal. He was convicted under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1952.
The appellant was found guilty of trafficking 6,073 grams of ketamine at the Kuching International Airport arrival hall at 2.30pm on Feb 22, 2013.
Initially, he had been discharged and acquitted from the charge four years ago in the High Court here but the decision was overturned in the Court of Appeal.
The case was then ordered to be remitted to the High Court for another trial. He was later found guilty and sentenced to death. His appeal to the Court of Appeal was also rejected with no merit.
The appellant was caught by Customs officers after they found the drug inside 22 ‘songkok’ he carried in a luggage.
The drug was in plastic packs stitched to the songkok. The gross weight of the drug when the arrest was made on the accused was more than 10 kg.
The judges were Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif, Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar, Tan Sri Ramly Ali, Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed and Datuk Dr Prasad Sadosham Abraham.