KUALA LUMPUR: An online cryptocurrency trader was discharged and acquitted today by the High Court on charges of drug trafficking and possession dating back four years.
Judge K. Muniandy ordered Low Ming Yan, 38, to be freed after ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case.
"The prosecution had not been able to prove exclusivity of the possession of the drugs to the accused himself.
"There were the presence of other individuals, which were two Vietnamese women, which raised reasonable doubt in the prosecution's case.
"Those individuals were not charged, not called as prosecution witnesses to negate their role in the dangerous drugs.
"In the wake of that, the contradictions and inconsistencies in the testimony of a prosecution witness adds up the evidence of the prosecution to be not credible.
"Thus, this court is unable to arrive at a definitive finding of the charges of possession and trafficking of dangerous drugs against the accused.
"In the upshot, this court is left with no alternative but to acquit and discharge the accused of all the charges against him. The accused is acquitted and discharged," he said when delivering his verdict.
Muniandy then asked the court interpreter to explain his decision to Low, who stood in the dock.
Low's handcuffed was immediately unlocked by police and he bowed to the judge before he was led out of the courtroom.
A total of 10 prosecution witnesses testified in the trial which began last year.
On the first charge, Low was charged with trafficking 898.41g of methamphetamine at 12.30am at a condominium unit in Segambut on Dec 9, 2020.
The charge under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 punishable under Section 39B(2) carries the death penalty or a lifetime imprisonment and no fewer than 15 strokes of the rotan.
He also had four drug possession charges of 45.75g of methamphetamine; 0.78g of methylenedioxymethamphetamine; 0.93g of ketamine at the condominium's carpark on the same day and time.
The charges under Section 12(2) of the same Act punishable under Section 39A(1) carries a jail term of between two to five years; not less than three strokes and maximum of nine strokes of the rotan.
Deputy public prosecutor Nur Aqilah Ishak prosecuted while lawyer Datuk C. Vignesh Kumar stood for Low.