Man gets 10 years, 10 strokes for cannabis possession
KUCHING: The High Court here yesterday sentenced a man to 10 years in prison and ordered him to be whipped 10 times for possession of cannabis.
Awang Jamalludin Awang Jamali, 26, pleaded guilty before Judge Azhahari Kamal Ramli to two amended charges under Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 to possessing 833.09 grammes of cannabis.
He had originally been charged under Section 39B of the same Act for trafficking in drugs, which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
The court also sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment for a third charge under Section 6 of the same Act, for possessing 42.56 grammes of cannabis.
The jail terms are to run concurrently from the date of Awang Jamalludin’s arrest on Aug 8, 2018.
All three offences were committed at a house in Petra Jaya around 6.30pm on Aug 3, 2018, when a police raid found the drugs in several places inside the house, including underneath a bed.
In mitigation, defence counsel Lim Lian Kee told the court that his client was a first-time offender, the sole breadwinner of his family, and had to care for his mother.
DPP Hayda Faridzal Abu Hasan prosecuted.