EX-CONTRACT WORKER GETS 20 YEARS IN JAIL INSTEAD

PUTRAJAYA: The trap sprang too early in the drug transaction and
this saved a former contract worker from the death sentence for
trafficking.

Saari Jusoh had been jointly charged with Mohd Saufi Jusoh with
trafficking in 3,686gm of cannabis at Jalan Tun Abdul Razak in Johor
Baru on Sept 8, 1991.

On Dec 11, 1995 the High Court sentenced Saari to death for
trafficking. (Mohd Saufi was acquitted of the charge.)

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction and set aside
the sentence and ordered that Saari be jailed 20 years and whipped 12
times for drug possession.

Justice Gopal Sri Ram, who led a three-man panel, said there was no
sale of drugs in the "transaction" between Saari and an undercover
policeman.

"A mere agreement to buy or sell a prescribed drug is not an act of
trafficking within Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act," he
said.

"Neither, we may add, do negotiations for a sale amount to the offence
of trafficking within section 39B(1)(a).

"It is our judgment that to constitute the act of selling within
Section 2 of the Act, there must have been an actual delivery of the
drugs by the appellant accompanied by the physical handing over the
agreed price by the agent provocateur.

"Needless to say such a completed transaction did not take place in
the present instance because the trap was sprung too early," he said.