Pendakwa Raya v AHMAD MUIZZ BIN AB GHANI

Case Significance

Illustrates how exclusive possession and the doctrine of wilful blindness establish a trafficking charge under section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 where cannabis is found in the accused's own vehicle, and the exercise of the sentencing discretion under the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023.

This High Court decision concerns a contested charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs under section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, punishable under section 39B(2), involving cannabis weighing 1,170.8 grams. Acting on information about drug activity by a man said to be a civil servant, the raiding team went to a residence in Klang; nothing incriminating was found in the house or on the accused, but when asked whether he was keeping anything unlawful, the accused took a key, opened the front passenger side of his own car parked in the compound, and produced a paper bag from the front passenger footwell which was found to contain compressed dried leaves confirmed to be cannabis. The central questions were whether the accused had possession of and knowledge of the drugs and whether trafficking had been established, given that the drugs were not found on his person but in his car. The court held that the drugs were plainly found in the accused's own car and that he had exclusive possession of them, and it applied the doctrine of wilful blindness; it considered that certain discrepancies between the prosecution witnesses did not damage the prosecution's case. Calling on the accused to enter his defence and finding that the defence had failed to raise any reasonable doubt, the court convicted him, treating his own act of retrieving the drugs from the car as strong evidence of custody, control and knowledge. On sentence, referring to the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, to the official statement in the Dewan Rakyat that the abolition of the mandatory death penalty was an initial step in reforming the criminal-justice system, and to Parliament's rehabilitative purpose in giving the court a discretion between death and imprisonment with whipping, the court emphasised the accused's prospect of rehabilitation and imposed hukuman penjara seumur hidup dan 12 kali sebatan rotan (life imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane). The judgment illustrates how exclusive possession and wilful blindness are established where drugs are found in an accused's vehicle.