PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian cleaning services supervisor has been sentenced to death in Singapore for drug trafficking.
According to a Singapore Straits Times report, Munusamy Ramarmurth, 39, was convicted by the High Court in Singapore last Wednesday of being in possession of 57.54 gm of heroin, which was found in a bag in his motorcycle’s rear box.
Under Singapore’s strict drug laws, anyone found to be in possession of more than 15 gm of heroin can be sentenced to death.
Munusamy’s sentencing comes amid the impending execution of another Malaysian, Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam. The 33-year-old is set to be hanged for trafficking about 42.72gm of pure heroin.
The written grounds for the judgment in Munusamy’s case were only released yesterday. In the written judgement, judge Audrey Lim said she did not believe Munusamy’s story.
Munusamy, who has been working in Singapore for 14 years, was arrested on Jan 26, 2018. He was escorted to his motorcycle at an open-air car park where the drugs were found.
During his trial, Munusamy claimed that another Malaysian named Saravanan had asked him to keep the bag in his motorcycle’s rear box until someone known as “Boy” came to collect it.
He said he thought the bag only contained stolen mobile phones because, in July 2017, Saravanan and Boy had asked him to keep some stolen phones in the box.
The judge concluded that Munusamy had made the story up.
Lim also reprimanded investigating officer Derek Wong for prompting a witness during the trial. She said such conduct was “inappropriate and unacceptable”.
Wong had signalled to a witness, Mohammad Nasrulhaq, a police officer who was on the stand on two occasions.
On the first occasion, he picked up a field diary and showed it to Mohammad when the latter was asked if the handover of the bag was recorded. The second time was when Wong mouthed the word “diamorphine” when Mohammad was asked what the term “heroin” referred to.
Lim noted however that Wong’s conduct had not prejudiced Munusamy’s case.-FMT