S'pore Court of Appeal acquits 2 men of drug trafficking, including a M'sian

SINGAPORE - Two men who were initially convicted of drug trafficking, including a Malaysian, were acquitted by the Singapore Court of Appeal on Friday, a local media reported.

The Straits Times reported that the three-judge court, led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, allowed the appeal of a Singaporean, Raj Kumar Aiyachami, 40, against his conviction and mandatory death sentence.

The report said the court also allowed the appeal of a Malaysian, Ramadass Punnusamy, 41, against his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.

The appeals of both men turned solely on whether each of them knew about the nature of the drugs, said the online news.

The pair had been charged over a bag of drugs containing not less than 1.875kg of cannabis.

Quoting Ramadass’ counsel Eugene Thuraisingam, the report said a temporary pass for Ramadass will likely have to be arranged by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority as his entry pass had expired, and Ramadass will then have to leave Singapore before his temporary pass expires. - BERNAMA