A three-judge Federal Court panel in Putrajaya on 1 November 2021 set aside former cook Rozman Ibrahim’s conviction and death sentence for trafficking 4,754 g of cannabis eight years earlier.[1][2] The panel, led by Chief Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed with judges Vernon Ong Lam Kiat and Zabariah Mohd Yusof, instead convicted the 37-year-old of drug possession and sentenced him to 18 years in prison and 10 strokes of the cane.[1][2]
The court ordered the jail term to run from the date of his arrest on 12 November 2013.[1][2] Rozman had been found guilty of distributing the drugs in the Taman Medan Pejasa car park in Petaling at 7.30pm that day, under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.[1][2] The Shah Alam High Court sentenced him to death by hanging on 31 October 2017, and the Court of Appeal upheld that on 12 September 2019.[1][2]
Azahar said the conviction and death sentence were unsafe because the trial judge made confusing findings on possession and distribution and gave the accused no direction on the burden on him, calling it a miscarriage of justice.[1][2] His lawyer Suzana Norlihan Alias argued he had not received a fair trial, while Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Siew Wee asked the court to uphold the conviction and sentence.[1][2]