Brunei sentences Malaysian to death for 922 g of cannabis
Brunei's High Court sentenced Malaysian national Lam Ming Hwa to death on 26 October 2004 for possessing a 922-gram slab of cannabis for trafficking, while his jointly charged co-defendant was acquitted.
Brunei’s High Court sentenced Malaysian national Lam Ming Hwa to death by hanging on 26
October 2004 for possessing a compressed slab of cannabis weighing 922.276 grams for the
purpose of trafficking.[1][2]Narcotics Control Bureau officers had arrested Lam and
Sylvester Anak Kuling at a plaza in Tutong on 24 November 2002.[1][2]Because the amount
exceeded 600 grams, the judges said death was the sentence they were obliged to pass.[1]
The court convicted Lam after rejecting his explanation for his fingerprint on the packet
holding the cannabis, while it acquitted Sylvester after accepting that he had touched a
packet under a car seat by accident.[1]Both men had pleaded guilty to consuming
methamphetamine and cannabis; Lam, a repeat offender, received three years in jail on each
consumption charge, running concurrently from his arrest, against three months for
Sylvester.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
A man arrested in January 2016 with 756.33 g of cannabis had faced a trafficking charge that carried the death penalty. In June 2026 prosecutors replaced it with two charges of possession for trafficking, covering 200 g of cannabis and 84.17 g of cannabis mixture, and he pleaded guilty.
The High Court refused bail to a man charged with importing 499.89 g of cannabis at Sungai Tujoh on 1 January 2024. Because the amount was just under the 500 g death threshold, the charge was amended to the 330–500 g band, carrying twenty to thirty years and fifteen strokes. He had been in remand for nearly two years.
Five Bruneian men aged 22 to 38 were arrested for carrying 68 kg of cannabis to Europe through third countries, earning about B$21,000. They used modified luggage, and the case showed Brunei acting as a courier source rather than only a consumer market. The arrests were an enforcement action, not a change in the law.
Brunei recorded 777 drug arrests in 2024, up from 711 in 2023; 641 were men, 136 women, and 645 were locals. Methamphetamine seizures rose above 40 kg, while UNODC recorded 2.6 kg of herbal cannabis seized against 6.3 kg in 2023. No cannabis-specific arrest count was published.