SHAH ALAM, Oct 21 — A mechanic, paralysed from the waist down and convicted of possessing 17.71g of methamphetamine, was spared from being given three strokes of the cane for the offence after the High Court here today revoked the punishment.
Judge Datuk Ab Karim Ab Rahman made the ruling following an application by deputy public prosecutor Tengku Intan Suraya Tengku Ismail to amend the whipping sentence on Ben Khaled Abd Molok, 42.
“The court uses its discretion provided under Section 291 of the Criminal Procedure Code to amend the sentence. So the court remitted the punishment (whipping) due to health factors,” he said.
Ben Khaled was sentenced to three years in prison and three strokes of the cane by the High Court, here on August 17, 2020, for drug possession.
He was charged with committing the offence in a car workshop in Jalan Tago, Tago Industrial Park, Sri Damansara, Gombak at 4pm on February 12, 2019.
Meanwhile, Ben Khaled’s lawyer Hafizuddin Salehuddin, when met outside the court, said that his client had completed his time in prison and was now a free man, following today’s decision.
He will be released after all the documentation processes in prison are completed, he added.
Last Wednesday, Ben Khaled, who had been convicted of trafficking in 10.53g of methamphetamine escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged him of the charge.
A Court of Appeal three-man panel led by Justice Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, in acquitting and discharging Ben Khaled Abd Molok, ruled the drug trafficking conviction against him was not safe.
He said there was a misdirection by the High Court judge in not considering the prosecution’s failure to ensure the attendance of a material witness that had been offered to the defence after the court ordered Ben Khalid to enter his defence.
Ben Khaled became paralysed in 2020 due to tuberculosis which affected his spine.
— Bernama
