KUALA LUMPUR: A Myanmar vegetable seller was today sentenced to death for trafficking in cannabis in Nov 2015.

In finding Nur Alam Mohd Hussain guilty of trafficking 1.98kg of cannabis, Judicial Commissioner Datuk Nordin Hassan said the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case.

He said the accused’s defence was based on merely bare denials and fictitious.

Nur Alam, 29, is alleged to have committed the offence at the Jalan Kuching Petronas station near here, at 6.50pm on Nov 17, 2015.

“The accused, when giving evidence during the defence stage of the trial, had stated that he was given two envelopes, containing spare parts, by a person named ‘Thanga’. The envelopes were supposed to have been delivered to the Petronas station, but (there was no indication) who the envelopes were for.

“However, when the police raiding team surrounded him at the petrol station, he dropped the bag which had contained both the envelopes and ran. The accused said he ran because he was afraid that he was going to be caught by the police as the motorcycle he had ridden to the petrol station on was a stolen vehicle,” said Nordin.

He said the accused had dumped the bag containing the envelopes because he knew of its contents.

“The accused had also created the character called ‘Thanga’. Moreover, the accused should have been able to smell the cannabis which were in large quantities, and by not doing so, (it can be concluded) that he had knowledge that the cannabis was for trafficking,” Nordin said.

Nur Alam, who was represented by K. A. Ramu, was calm when the death sentence was read out to him.

Five prosecution and four defence witnesses gave evidence in the case, which was prosecuted by Ezrene Zakariah.

© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd