A police team of eight led by Chief Inspector Yap Huat Tian staked out Block 4, Desa Tun Razak, in Sungei Besi, Kuala Lumpur on 16 June 2000 and arrested Hairul Din bin Zainal Abidin, 27, as he walked toward the lift at about 11.15 pm.[1] He was holding a white Starmart plastic bag containing a newspaper-wrapped packet of plant material in masking tape, which the chemist found to be 953.2 grams of cannabis net.[1]

Hairul Din was charged with trafficking under section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries the mandatory death penalty.[1] Justice Augustine Paul held that merely holding drugs is only the first step toward carrying or keeping them and does not amount to trafficking, so the prosecution could not use the presumption of trafficking and proved only possession.[1]

The court convicted him on the amended charge of possession and, noting he was a 27-year-old first offender but that the amount did not suggest personal consumption, sentenced him to ten years’ imprisonment and ten strokes of the rotan.[1]