Drug sentences to be appealed

Press, 3 August 1985, Page 11

Drug sentences to be appealed

NZPA-AAP Penang Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, of Australia, were moved to death row yesterday after the mandatory Malaysian sentence of hanging was confirmed against them. Their lawyers immediately began drafting appeals against their conviction for heroin trafficking after they became the first Westerners to be condemned for the offence. A judge in the Penang High Court had earlier convicted the pair jointly of trafficking in 180 gm of pure heroin. They were arrested as they were about to board a first class flight from Penang Airport to Singapore on November 9, 1983.

A 1983 law left Judge Muhammad Dzaiddin Bin Haji Abdullah no choice but to sentence anyone convicted of trafficking in more than 15gm of heroin or morphine to be hanged. The Supreme Court can

quash convictions or order a retrial, and finally a pardons board can commute the sentence or pardon the accused, said the Australians’ lawyers. Counsel for Barlow, Karpal Singh, and for Chambers, Rusiah Rajasingham, said that they hoped the Supreme Court could hear their appeals within three months.

The Judge has no execution date, and the lawyers said even if the appeals failed the accused could expect several years at least in jail. Legal and diplomatic sources said that the weeklong trial had carried political overtones, as the Malaysian Government was determined to hit traffickers and apply the mandatory death penalty equally.

Most of the 85 or so Asians convicted of drug trafficking here during the past five years have been Malaysian or Hong Kong Chinese.