Mohd Amril Bin Johari

On the court record

An appellate criminal-prosecution practice in the Court of Appeal, concentrated on drug trafficking and homicide.

Mohd Amril Bin Johari appears in the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), and the reported decisions place him on the prosecution side and as respondent in criminal appeals. The two dominant subjects are drug trafficking under "seksyen 39B(1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952" (section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952) and homicide under "seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan" (section 302 of the Penal Code), the latter sometimes read with the common-intention provision in section 34.

The appeals are largely "rayuan terhadap sabitan dan hukuman" (appeals against conviction and sentence). They engage the possession and trafficking presumptions of the Dangerous Drugs Act — including the presumption in "seksyen 37(da)" — the mitigation and lesser-offence provisions in "seksyen 12" and "seksyen 39A", and the adverse-inference provision in "seksyen 114(g) Akta Keterangan 1950" (section 114(g) of the Evidence Act 1950). In the homicide matters the argument engages the intention element and whether the facts support a conviction for murder.

Acting mainly as respondent for the prosecution, the reported task is to defend the High Court's conviction and sentence against a convicted person's challenge — meeting arguments that the presumptions were wrongly drawn, that the evidence was insufficient, or that the sentence was excessive. Where the prosecution appeals, the object is to disturb an acquittal or an inadequate sentence. The argument is confined to the appellate record and to questions of law.

The overall profile is an appellate criminal-prosecution practice in the Court of Appeal, concentrated on drug trafficking and homicide. The matters turn on the drug presumptions, the intention element in homicide, and the appellate standard for reviewing a conviction and sentence, rather than on primary fact-finding at trial, marking a settled appellate speciality at the serious end of the criminal calendar. The pairing of trafficking and murder appeals is characteristic of counsel instructed on the gravest offences, where a conviction carries the most serious consequences and the appellate scrutiny is correspondingly close.