MALAYSIA
Judicial CP - July 2010

Corpun file 22413

New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur, 7 July 2010

Former prisoner returns for whipping sentence

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PUTRAJAYA: Having served a 10-year prison sentence for drug possession, a former salesman who was released early this year could have absconded. However, Lim Chuan Yee chose to return to the courts to undergo the imposition of 10 strokes of the rotan.

Early this year, a prison officer released Lim, 36, at a shopping complex in Kajang after he had completed the jail sentence.

At the time, however, the prison authorities could not execute the whipping sentence on him because the Court of Appeal had yet to hear the prosecution's appeal on the High Court's decision in amending the charge against Lim from drug trafficking to possession.

Lim, who was abandoned at 9pm on that day, was told to appear for the court hearing in the prosecution's appeal last Feb 22.

The hearing was, however, adjourned to Feb 24, and he turned up in court.

The appeal was then postponed to today, where Lim was also present.

In today's court proceedings, the prosecution agreed to withdraw its appeal on Lim's conviction under the reduced charge and instead, pursued to appeal on the sentence.

Following consent by both the defence and the prosecution, the Court of Appeal's three-man bench led by Datuk Hasan Lah made an order that an additional one month's jail term be imposed on Lim to enable the whipping to be carried out on him.

The other two judges were Datuk Ahmad Maarop and Datuk Sulaiman Daud.

On June 23 last year, the High Court had sentenced Lim to 10 years' jail and also ordered that he be given 10 strokes of rotan after amending the charge from trafficking to possession at the end of the prosecution's case.

Lim pleaded guilty to the amended charge.

He was jailed for possessing three plastic bags containing 112.7gm of a mixture of heroin and morphine by a roadside in the Jalan Kampung Chempedak area, Sentul Pasar at 10.30pm on May 18, 2003. - BERNAMA