A Nigerian man has today escaped death but sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with 10 strokes of cane.
The Nigerian National was jailed for possession of ‘precious stones’ which after testing was discovered to be methamphetamine.
In a three-man panel set-up by the Court of Appeal led by Justice Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, the Nigerian man identified as Abuchi Ngwoke, 31, was cleared off the death sentence passed on him by the Melaka High Court for drug trafficking.
The presiding Judge at the Appeal Court, Tengku Maximum noted that the court found substantial reasons to believe the accused’s counsel, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik and thus ordered the reversal of his death sentence while passing a new judgement on his case.
The judge added that his new sentence, 20 years would be counted as from the date of his arrest on May 23, 2012.
Ngwoke before his arrest had broken into the Batik Selat House MITC in Melaka and drank a bottle of ink, he was thereafter arrested by the police and taken to the Melaka General Hospital where 27 capsules of methamphetamine was allegedly collected from his stomach.
Upon questioning, Ngwoke said he believed the recovered 27 capsules to be special “precious stones” adding that he consumed the substance with soup after a certain man named Chibike convinced him that the substance was a precious stone dust used in Jewelery making in Malaysia.