A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by judge Hanipah Farikullah spared a married couple the gallows on 22 June 2022, three years after the Johor Bahru High Court sentenced them to death for trafficking about five kilograms of ganja.[1] Their lawyers told the court that a joint representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers made the previous month had been accepted, and the prosecution confirmed this without revealing details.[1]
Split outcome
The bench freed 42-year-old K Kavitha outright, while her 44-year-old husband S Jagatheson had his trafficking charge reduced to possession and was jailed for 15 years and ordered to receive ten strokes of the rotan.[1] The couple had been charged with trafficking 4,966.6 grams of ganja at a house in Pangsa Pulai Utama, Johor Bahru, on 19 April 2016, and the High Court convicted them on 18 March 2019.[1] Jagatheson’s lawyer said in mitigation that his client had suffered enough, separated from his two young children.[1]