On 18 October 2001 two police officers on duty at a police post situated at a jetty along the Golok River in Kelantan stopped Mijan bin Mohd Deros for a random search.[1] While one officer searched his person, Mijan tried to run away and was arrested, then took out several transparent plastic packets of plant material from inside his trousers.[1] Officers took him to Tek A, another police post, where a strip search recovered 84 transparent plastic packets in total.[1] The chemist, who received the packets on 22 October 2001, confirmed the plant material was 527.5 grams of cannabis.[1]
Mijan said he had bought the packets in the town of Golok for RM200 and claimed they were for his own consumption, saying he was an addict.[1] The trial judge found the prosecution had proved possession of 527.5 grams, which exceeded the 200-gram threshold triggering the statutory presumption of trafficking, rejected the personal-use defence, and imposed the mandatory death sentence.[1]
Appeal
On appeal Mijan argued there was a break in the chain of evidence over exhibit handling, that the exhibits were not marked in his presence, and that the trial judge had ignored his consumption claim.[1] The Court of Appeal held the chemist-receipt date written as 22 January 2001 was a typing error for 22 October 2001, that no law requires exhibits to be marked in the accused’s presence, and that the trial judge had considered and rejected the addict defence.[1] On 11 March 2008 the court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the conviction and death sentence, with grounds delivered on 2 September 2008.[1]