Azamuddin And Co.

On the court record

Azamuddin And Co. is a Malaysian criminal-appellate practice whose reported matters are argued before the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), acting for appellants in prosecutions brought by the Public Prosecutor (Pendakwa Raya). Every reported matter is an appeal against conviction or sentence in a serious criminal case. A central strand concerns murder under section 302 of the Penal Code (Kanun Keseksaan). Following the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 (Akta Pemansuhan Hukuman Mati Mandatori 2023, Act 846), the firm has argued rayuan terhadap hukuman (appeals against sentence) invoking the court's discretion under section 34 of that Act to impose an alternative sentence, pressing mitigating factors such as a guilty plea, first-offender status and the absence of any previous record against the weight given to the public interest (kepentingan awam).

The firm has also appeared in drug-trafficking appeals under section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952), where appellants had been convicted and sentenced to death by hanging (hukuman gantung di leher sampai mati) at the High Court over dangerous drugs including methamphetamine, heroin and monoacetylmorphines, and in a related appeal the conviction was maintained (sabitan dikekalkan) after the court reviewed the evidence of an ambush operation and the search that followed. In one appeal, argument turned on the limits of the right of appeal following a plea of guilty under section 305 of the Criminal Procedure Code and whether there had been any non-compliance with procedure. In the drug appeals the firm challenged the trial court's reliance on the ambush-operation and observation evidence and the identification of the accused at the scene, while maintaining that the mitigating circumstances warranted a sentence short of death, arguments the court weighed before deciding whether to disturb the conviction or the sentence. The reported profile is that of a specialist criminal-appeal practice, focused on capital and drug cases and on the sentencing discretion opened up by the 2023 abolition of the mandatory death penalty.