Brunei Direct, Bandar Seri Begawan, 27 April 2003

Long jail sentence for drug trafficking duo

By Rol Ezam

A local man and his permanent resident 'girlfriend' were found guilty by the High Court yesterday for several drug charges where the man was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment with 6 strokes of the cane while the woman sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in jail. The defendant, Haji Hassan Awang Tamit, who has a related previous conviction, and Noorhayati Abdullah were found guilty by Judge Datin Paduka Hayati after a long trial conducted by the Attorney General's Chambers Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhana Haji Sudin.

Both were unrepresented.

For the first charge, Hj Hassan was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment with 6 strokes of the rattan (cane) while Noorhayati was sentenced to 6 years behind bars. They were found guilty for having 35.5761 grammes of class A controlled drug, Methylamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking.

Hj Hassan was then sentenced to a concurrent sentence of 4 years imprisonment each for two charges of consuming, a class A controlled drug Methylamphetamine and a class B controlled drug Codeine.

However, Judge Hayati ordered for Hj Hassan sentences to run concurrently.

Meanwhile, Noorhayati, the first offender under the MDA offence, was fined $1,000 or 2 months jail if in default after she pleaded guilty for consuming Methylamphetamine. She was also fined $1,000 or a month imprisonment for having apparatus intended for the consumption of the said drugs. She failed to pay the fine.

All offences were committed on July 31 last year at house number 172 Q in Kampong Saba Darat B, when personnel of the Narcotic Control Bureau conducted a raid in Kampong Ayer.