SIBU: A car accessories trader was today sentenced to life imprisonment, equivalent to 30 years’ imprisonment, and 12 strokes of the cane by the High Court here after been convicted for the first charge of drugs trafficking.
Justice Wong Siong Tung ordered John Ting Sing Fong, 40, from Jalan Deshon here to serve his imprisonment sentence from the date of his arrest on May 8, 2023.
Justice Wong had earlier, on September 26, found that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt for the charge with three other related drugs possession charges against the accused at the end of the defence stage.
The accused was indicted on a main charge of trafficking in 70.78 grammes of methamphetamine (MDMA) under Section 39B(1)(A) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and punishable under Subsection 39(B) (2) of the same Act, which carries a death sentence or life imprisonment in addition to not less than 12 strokes of whipping upon conviction.
For the second charge of possessing 26.7 grammes of ketamine, he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
On the third charge of possession of 119.52 grammes of ketamine, the accused was ordered to serve four years in jail and one year’s imprisonment for the fourth charge of possession of 1.55 grammes of MDMA.
However, Wong ordered the imprisonment sentences to run concurrently.
The three charges of drugs possession were each framed under Section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and punishable under Section 12)3) of the same Act which provides for up to five years or fine of RM100,000 or both.
In his ruling on September 26, Wong pointed out that the accused had failed to cast any reasonable doubt on his possession of the drugs in relation to all the four charges, and also failed to rebut, on a balance of probabilities, the presumption of drugs trafficking.
“Additionally, he has failed to raise any reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case in other material respects. Accordingly, the Court convicts the accused of all four offences as he has been charged,” he stated.
Prior to passing sentence, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP), Mark Kenneth Netto, urged the Court to pass a deterrent sentence as the interest of the public is of paramount consideration which supersedes the personal interest of the accused, as mentioned during his mitigation.
He asserted that no credit for remorse ought to be given to the accused in this case as he had not pleaded guilty at first instance.
He pointed out that the accused mantained his innocence and sought for a full trial, and a total of 11 witnesses (five prosecution witnesses and six defence witnesses) were called in the trial which commenced on August 19, 2024, and prolonged till today.
The trial, Mark added, not only incurred huge cost to the public but also took up precious judicial time of the honourable Court, and extra police personnel had to be placed in Court for the trial.
He argued that the accused’s background during his mitigation did not suggest he was forced into a life of crime.
“He did not claim he was from a violent or broken home or that he grew up being influenced by drugs. His judgment was not clouded when he decided to get involved in drugs; it was deliberate.
“The accused has not given any assistance to any law enforcement agency to help it disrupts any drug trafficking activities. Morever, the accused has one conviction record for the offence of administering dangerous drugs to himself and been sentenced to five months’ imprisonment,” he stated.
Mark also revealed that drug cases in Sarawak have now reached epidemic proportions, and the cost incurred by the public for the Royal Malaysia Police to combat narcotic-related crimes is at an all-time high.
He stressed that the accused’s drug trafficking activities have ruined the fabric of society and the community that he lived in.
Families, he added, were presumably torn apart due to the drugs that were supplied by the accused.
If the accused thinks that he is a family man and deserves leniency, then what about the families that had been destroyed by the drugs that he supplied, Mark said, adding that the said drugs presumably ruined the prospects of the people who were addicted to them.
The lives of these drug addicts, he said, were also taken over and eventually lost as a result of drug addiction.
He stated that drug trafficking, such as the type that the accused was involved with, gives rise to a variety of other crimes, such as house-breaking, domestic violence, robbery, and so forth.
“The sentence imposed on the accused must reflect a general deterrence for drug-related activities. It ought to send a strong message to other potential would-be offenders not to be involved in drug trafficking,” Mark further said.
