36-year-old Muhammad Faizal Mohd Shariff, who was convicted of possessing cannabis for trafficking, had had his application to review his case dismissed by the Court of Appeal, according to a judgment released on 16 May.
Justice Tay Yong Kwang said in his judgment that Faizal’s application was an “impermissible attempt at reopening and rearguing the appeal”, and that there was no new evidence to meet the requirements of the application for review.
Background
Faizal was convicted in January 2019 of possessing drugs to traffic by Justice Chan Seng Ongg after being arrested in February 2016, and being found with 3.5kg of “vegetable matter”, of which 1.6kg of it contained cannabis (also known as Marijuana, Ganja, weed).
He had collected 4 blocks of the cannabis and took them to an apartment where he cut them up and repacked one of the blocks into smaller portions.
Faizal had said that the cannabis was for his own consumption, with only a small part of it being meant to be sold.
However, in his testimony, he also said that he had never smoked cannabis before, and the drugs in his possession were for his “future use”, which he planned to do bit by bit.
He was found to have knowledge and possession of all the blocks of cannabis and admitted in a statement that he planned to sell the drugs, dealing it in a manner that was consistent with someone who was intending to traffic it.
He was eventually sentenced to the mandatory death penalty and subsequently appealed against the decision by the High Court.
His family was informed on 10 May earlier this month by the Singapore Prison Service that they would be carrying his death sentence on 17 May.
Faizal then filed a new application to review his case on 11 May, hoping to reduce his death sentence to life imprisonment or a reduction of his charge to a non-capital offence, with his lawyer arguing that additional evidence has come to light and that there had been a change in the law.
Submissions were then filed by the prosecution in response to Faizal’s application, saying that he had failed to raise enough materials.
His application was then dismissed by Justice Tay.