A Kenyan woman Pamela Aoko Omollo has escaped a death sentence after the Court of Appeal in Malaysia set aside her conviction for trafficking 903.5g of methamphetamine.
Pamela, 39, however, was sentenced to 12 years in jail after the court substituted the charge against her with possession of the drug.
Lawyer K. Simon Murali, who was assigned by the court to represent Omollo, informed the three-member bench led by Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had accepted his client’s representation for the drug trafficking charge to be reduced to possession.
Deputy public prosecutor Zaki Asyraf Zubir confirmed the AGC had accepted Omollo’s representation.
The three-member bench of the Court ordered Omollo to serve jail sentence from Nov 25, 2016, the day she was arrested essencially reducing the remaining days she will be in jail to 7 years.
Pamela was found guilty by the High Court on March 16, 2021, of drug trafficking after her arrest at international arrival hall of Kuala Lumpur Airport on Nov 25, 2016. She was sentenced to death but appealed to the Court of Appeal against her conviction and sentence.
According to the facts of the case, the drug was discovered in a bag where it was concealed by wooden layers covered with black fabric that were fitted on the upper and lower parts of the bag.
In mitigating for a lesser jail term, Murali said Omollo, who comes from a poor family, was a victim who fell into the treachery of a person belonging to a drug trafficking syndicate which utilised innocent persons to transport its illicit merchandise.
He said she has been in jail for almost seven years and that prolonged incarceration was unjustified and detrimental to Omollo, who has reformed.
He said the appropriate jail sentence would be nine years.
Zaki Asyraf highlighted to the court two case law authorities relating to the current sentencing trend imposed on offenders for such cases.
He said in one case, a person was sentenced to 12 years in jail for possessing 52.95g of methamphetamine while another person possessing more than 1kg of drugs was given 30 years’ jail.
By Bernama
Source-https://www.nst.com.my/
Kenyan woman escapes death sentence for drug possession in Malaysia
