Salesman On Death Row Escapes Hangman S Noose For Syabu Trafficking

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Ser Chee Yew was convicted for trafficking syabu in 2015.PUTRAJAYA: A salesman who has been on death row for five years for allegedly trafficking in 83.4kg of methamphetamine escaped the gallows in his final appeal today.
Ser Chee Yew, 30, was instead sentenced to 23 years imprisonment and ordered to be whipped 15 times for possession of the drugs.
A three-member Federal Court bench chaired by justice Rohana Yusuf ordered the sentence to begin from the date of arrest – June 26, 2015. The others on the bench were justices Vernon Ong and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.
Earlier, lawyer N Sivananthan submitted that there was a misdirection by the trial judge on whether the element of trafficking had been rebutted or otherwise by Ser.
Sivananthan, who was assisted by Jayarubbiny Jayaraj, also urged the bench to consider reducing the charge to possession, which they were agreeable to.
The High Court in April 2017 convicted Ser for trafficking in 83.4kg of methamphetamine, widely known as syabu, near a lift at Mutiara Complex, Jalan Ipoh, in Kuala Lumpur, on June 26, 2015.
The Court of Appeal dismissed Ser’s appeal last year.
Meanwhile, Sivananthan and deputy public prosecutor Norzilati Izhani Zainal@Zainol, on behalf of the Malaysian Bar and the Attorney-General’s Chambers respectively, wished Rohana happy retirement as this was the last case she would be chairing.
Her last day in office is on Nov 8 but she will be on leave before retirement. Rohana is the first woman to be appointed Court of Appeal president in December 2019. - FMT

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