Public Prosecutor v Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed: Trafficking Diamorphine under Misuse of Drugs Act

In Public Prosecutor v Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed, the High Court of Singapore convicted Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed for possessing not less than 147.98 grams of diamorphine for the purpose of trafficking, an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Jumaat claimed he was merely assisting a friend in collecting vegetables and was unaware of the drugs. The court found Jumaat guilty and, because the Public Prosecutor did not certify that Jumaat had substantively assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau, the court passed the mandatory death sentence. Jumaat has appealed the conviction and sentence.

1. Case Overview

1.1 Court

High Court

1.2 Outcome

Mandatory death sentence passed on Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed.

1.3 Case Type

Criminal

1.4 Judgment Type

Grounds of Decision

1.5 Jurisdiction

Singapore

1.6 Description

Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed was convicted of possessing diamorphine for trafficking under the Misuse of Drugs Act and sentenced to death. The court found he acted as a courier.

1.7 Decision Date

5 August 2018

2. Parties and Outcomes

Party Name	Role	Type	Outcome	Outcome Type	Counsels
Public Prosecutor	Prosecution	Government Agency	Conviction of the accused	Won	Lau Wing Yum of Attorney-General’s Chambers Zhuo Wenzhao of Attorney-General’s Chambers
Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed	Defendant	Individual	Mandatory death sentence	Lost	Loh Guo Wei Melvin of Continental Law LLP Jason Peter Dendroff of J P Dendroff & Co Teh Ee-Von of Infinitus Law Corporation

3. Judges

Judge Name	Title	Delivered Judgment
Hoo Sheau Peng	Judge	Yes

4. Counsels

Counsel Name	Organization
Lau Wing Yum	Attorney-General’s Chambers
Zhuo Wenzhao	Attorney-General’s Chambers
Loh Guo Wei Melvin	Continental Law LLP
Jason Peter Dendroff	J P Dendroff & Co
Teh Ee-Von	Infinitus Law Corporation

4. Facts

CNB officers were deployed to the vicinity of Block 505 to look out for Jumaat.
Jumaat left his residence at Block 506 and rode his bicycle towards Block 505.
Jumaat parked his bicycle and walked into Aik Leong Eating House.
A lorry stopped after a bus-stop along Ang Mo Kio Street 53.
Jumaat walked towards the passenger side of the Lorry holding a blue plastic bag.
Jumaat was observed carrying a few larger plastic bags and walking towards the Coffeeshop.
CNB officers arrested Jumaat at the food stall and recovered eight cabbages containing drugs.

5. Formal Citations

Public Prosecutor v Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed, Criminal Case No 76 of 2017, [2018] SGHC 176

6. Timeline

Date	Event
2015-08-13	CNB officers deployed to Block 505 to look out for Jumaat.
2015-08-13	Jumaat left his residence at Block 506.
2015-08-13	Jumaat rode his bicycle towards Block 505.
2015-08-13	Jumaat parked his bicycle and walked into Aik Leong Eating House.
2015-08-13	Lorry stopped after a bus-stop along Ang Mo Kio Street 53.
2015-08-13	Jumaat walked towards the passenger side of the Lorry holding a blue plastic bag.
2015-08-13	Jumaat was observed carrying a few larger plastic bags and walking towards the Coffeeshop.
2015-08-13	CNB officers arrested Jumaat at the food stall.
2015-08-13	Search of the food stall was conducted.
2015-08-13	Lorry stopped at Woodlands Checkpoint and the three persons within were arrested.
2015-08-13	Contemporaneous statement recorded from Jumaat.
2015-08-13	Cautioned statement recorded from Jumaat.
2015-08-15	First long statement recorded from Jumaat.
2015-08-17	Second long statement recorded from Jumaat.
2015-08-20	Third long statement recorded from Jumaat.
2017-11-28	Trial began.
2018-02-28	Trial continued.
2018-05-07	Trial continued.
2018-08-06	Judgment issued.

7. Legal Issues

Possession of a Controlled Drug
- Outcome: The court found that Jumaat was in possession of the drugs.
- Category: Substantive
- Related Cases:
  - [2017] 1 SLR 633
Knowledge of the Nature of the Drug
- Outcome: The court found that Jumaat knew the nature of the drugs.
- Category: Substantive
- Related Cases:
  - [2017] 1 SLR 633
Possession of the Drug for the Purpose of Trafficking
- Outcome: The court found that Jumaat possessed the drugs for the purpose of trafficking.
- Category: Substantive
- Related Cases:
  - [2014] 3 SLR 721
Eligibility for Alternative Sentencing Regime
- Outcome: The court found that Jumaat met the first requirement but the Public Prosecutor did not issue a certificate of substantive assistance, thus the alternative sentencing regime was not available.
- Category: Procedural
- Related Cases:
  - [2018] 1 SLR 449

8. Remedies Sought

Conviction
Sentencing

9. Cause of Actions

Trafficking in a controlled drug

10. Practice Areas

Criminal Litigation
Drug Trafficking

11. Industries

No industries specified

12. Cited Cases

Case Name	Court	Affirmed	Citation	Jurisdiction	Significance
Muhammad Ridzuan bin Md Ali v Public Prosecutor and other matters	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2014] 3 SLR 721	Singapore	Cited for the elements of a charge of trafficking under s 5(1)(a) read with s 5(2) of the MDA.
Obeng Comfort v Public Prosecutor	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2017] 1 SLR 633	Singapore	Cited for the presumptions of possession and knowledge of controlled drugs under s 18 of the MDA and how to rebut them.
Zainudin bin Mohamed v Public Prosecutor	Court of Appeal	Yes	[2018] 1 SLR 449	Singapore	Cited for the burden of proving involvement in drug trafficking was restricted to activities listed under s 33B(2)(a) of the MDA and the courier exception.
Ong Ah Chuan and another v Public Prosecutor	N/A	Yes	[1979-1980] SLR (R) 710	Singapore	Cited for the inference that a recipient intended to traffic in drugs where the quantity of drugs is large.

13. Applicable Rules

Rule Name
No applicable rules

14. Applicable Statutes

Statute Name	Jurisdiction
Misuse of Drugs Act (Cap 185, 2008 Rev Ed)	Singapore
s 5(1)(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 5(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 33(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 33B of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 33B(1)(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 33B(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 33B(2)(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 33B(2)(b) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 33B(4) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 17 of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 18 of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 18(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
s 18(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act	Singapore
Criminal Procedure Code (Cap 68, 2012 Rev Ed)	Singapore
s 258(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code	Singapore
s 22 of the Criminal Procedure Code	Singapore
s 23 of the Criminal Procedure Code	Singapore

15. Key Terms and Keywords

15.1 Key Terms

Diamorphine
Trafficking
Courier
Misuse of Drugs Act
CNB
Cabbages
Blue plastic bag
Malaysian number

15.2 Keywords

Drug trafficking
Diamorphine
Misuse of Drugs Act
Singapore
Criminal Law

17. Areas of Law

Area Name	Relevance Score
Misuse of Drugs Act	100
Criminal Law	90
Sentencing	60
Evidence	50

16. Subjects

Criminal Law
Drug Trafficking