Malaysia’s Federal Court in Putrajaya unanimously dismissed Thai national Wichai Onprom’s final appeal on 26 February 2007, leaving his death sentence for trafficking 1.2 kg of cannabis in place.[1][2] The five-judge panel affirmed the conviction and sentence for an offence at the Bukit Kayu Hitam immigration complex in Kedah, where Wichai was caught at about 2.45 pm on 24 February 1995.[1][2]
Wichai, a butcher, had been on death row since the High Court sentenced him to death on 6 April 1995, only weeks after his arrest.[1][3] His appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed on 6 September 2004.[1][2] At the Federal Court hearing, counsel Datuk K. Kumaraendran argued that the trial judge never explained why the defence was called, as the law requires.[1] Deputy public prosecutor Nurulhuda Noraini Mohd Nor replied that the judge had clearly applied his mind by accepting the prosecution witnesses’ evidence.[1]
Amnesty International, which took up the case as an imminent execution in June 2007, said Malaysian law presumes trafficking from possession of more than 200 grams of cannabis and carries a mandatory death sentence.[3] It raised concerns that Wichai’s guilt over possession was never proved beyond doubt, noting his congenital deformity in one hand and that he could not afford a lawyer and relied at times on inexperienced court-appointed counsel.[3]