Pendakwa Raya v RAFAEL NUNEZ PAZ

Case Significance

Illustrates the sentencing discretion available in drug-trafficking cases under the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 and the weight given to public interest and recent appellate trends in choosing between the death sentence and life imprisonment.

This High Court decision at Shah Alam concerns the conviction and sentencing of a foreign national who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, and it illustrates the court's exercise of the sentencing discretion introduced by the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023. The accused, a Bolivian national, was charged under seksyen 39B(1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952 (section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952), punishable under section 39B(2), for trafficking in 3.7140 kilograms (gross weight) of cocaine, the drugs having been found on him at the passenger examination area of the international airport at Sepang, Selangor. A co-accused had been charged with the same offence. On the day of decision the prosecution informed the court that the Attorney General's Chambers had accepted representations under which the accused would plead guilty and the co-accused would be discharged. The amended charge was read and explained to the accused in Spanish through an interpreter, and he confirmed that he understood the charge, its nature and the consequences of pleading guilty and admitted the facts and exhibits. The central sentencing question was whether, following the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, the court should exercise its discretion to impose imprisonment for life rather than the death sentence, the paramount consideration being the public interest. Guided by established sentencing principles and by the recent trend in the Court of Appeal of imposing life imprisonment in place of the death sentence, and taking the term of life imprisonment to mean thirty years, the court convicted the accused on his plea and sentenced him to thirty years' imprisonment from the date of arrest, declining to impose whipping on account of his age; the co-accused was discharged and acquitted. The judgment is a useful illustration of the sentencing discretion now available in trafficking cases under the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 and of the weight given to public interest and recent appellate trends in choosing between the death sentence and life imprisonment.