At about 2.30am on 6 May 2014, three policemen on crime-prevention patrol stopped Ahmad Marsidi Ismail, who was driving alone in a Proton Saga on Jalan Pria, Taman Maluri, in Kuala Lumpur.[1][2] Under the front passenger seat they found a red bag holding a plastic bag of slabs of compressed plant material, later confirmed to be 973 grams of cannabis.[1][2] He was charged with trafficking the drug under section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, and the High Court in Kuala Lumpur convicted him and imposed the mandatory death sentence on 25 April 2016.[1]

The trial judge had found that Marsidi had custody and control of the drugs as the only person in the car and that the smell of cannabis in the car showed he knew what they were.[1][2] The Court of Appeal held there was no evidential basis for the smell finding, that custody alone did not prove knowledge, and that trafficking was not proved on passive possession alone.[1] On 5 June 2017 the court set aside the trafficking conviction and death sentence, substituting a possession conviction under section 6 punishable under section 39A(2), with 20 years in prison from the date of arrest and ten strokes of whipping.[1][2] A second law report of the same decision confirms the 973 g figure and the substituted sentence.[2]