Hazza Khalid, Suraya & Partners

On the court record

Hazza Khalid, Suraya & Partners appears in the corpus as counsel for the accused in serious drug prosecutions in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi), in a set of charges tried together against co-accused. The court's own account, in Malay, was of a 'Bicara penuh' (a full trial) in which three charges were registered against a first accused and a second accused: in one case number the two were jointly charged with trafficking in dangerous drugs under 'seksyen 39B(1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952' (section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952); in another they were jointly charged with possession of dangerous drugs under 'seksyen 12(2)' (section 12(2)) of the same Act; and in a third the second accused alone was charged under section 39B(1)(a); the three registered case numbers were tried together. At the close of the prosecution case the court found a prima facie case and both accused were ordered to enter their defence — 'Kedua-dua OKT diarahkan untuk bela diri' (both of the accused were ordered to defend themselves). Each gave sworn evidence, but the court characterised the defence as one of bare denial and afterthought — 'Pembelaan penafian dan afterthoughts' — which on the court's assessment did not raise a reasonable doubt in the prosecution case. The matters are a clear illustration of how multiple related charges of trafficking and possession against co-accused are case-managed and tried as one, and of how the statutory framework of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 structures the trial from the prima-facie stage through to the evaluation of the defence. The joint trial of trafficking and possession charges against co-accused also shows the importance of keeping each charge and each accused analytically distinct, since a finding on the joint trafficking charge does not automatically carry over to the separate charge faced by one accused alone. Across the appearances the practice is that of defence counsel engaged at the trial level in the gravest category of drug offences, where the sufficiency of the prosecution case and the credibility of the accused's own evidence determine the outcome.