Vegetable seller Baha Jambol had spent more than nine years on death row when his case came up for appeal in Putrajaya on 12 November 2007.[1][2] His conviction was amended from trafficking to possession, which overturned the death sentence imposed for 50,607.5 grams of cannabis.[1][2]

Baha, 45, a vendor from Pasir Mas, Kelantan, had been charged with trafficking the cannabis in front of the Gua Musang police station at about 12.30am on 31 December 1996.[1] The High Court convicted and sentenced him to death on 26 April 1998, while his friend Azman Ahmad, 35, was acquitted without his defence being called.[1] The written judgment was delivered only on 26 September, more than nine years later, and given those special circumstances the prosecution accepted the reduction of the charge while counsel Karpal Singh withdrew an application for Baha to be freed.[1][2]

Deputy public prosecutor C. K. Wong proposed the maximum 20 years’ imprisonment with more than ten strokes of the rotan, and the court sentenced Baha to 18 years’ jail and 12 strokes, backdated to his arrest.[1][2] After a one-third remission he was expected to be a free man in December of the following year.[2] The prosecution also withdrew its appeal against Azman’s acquittal.[1]