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A 39-year-old Malaysian of Indian origin who was sentenced to death via Zoom for drug trafficking in May 2020 was acquitted on Monday by Singapore’s Court of Appeal, saying prosecutors had not settled his case.
Singapore’s highest appeals court acquitted Punithan Genasan of a drug trafficking charge when he turned up two drug smugglers in a parking lot here in October 2011, Channel News Asia reported.
Genasan was sentenced to death in May 2020, Singapore’s first death sentence for the Covid-19 pandemic.
He was implicated in the case when one of the drug couriers alleged that Genasan was the mastermind of a drug deal for which drug smugglers were arrested through Central Bureau of Narcotics officials on October 28, 2011.
Both owned granular ingredients containing at least 28. 5 g of diamorphine or natural heroin. Illegal trafficking, import or export of diamorphine weighing more than 15 grams is punishable by death under Singapore’s Drug Misuse Act, according to the Central Bureau of Narcotics website.
At Monday’s trial, the prosecution could not prove beyond a moderate doubt that a meeting between Genasan and the two drug couriers was pronounced before the actual drug transaction took position.
Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Andrew Phang and Tay Yong Kwang said there were discrepancies in evidence related to the date and time of the alleged meeting in the trial.
Judge Tay, who delivered the verdict on behalf of the three-judge panel, added that the assembly is a “central element” in the anti-Gensan rate.
Citing the “unique cases of this case,” he said the rate had not been shown beyond a moderate doubt, as he was not sure the assembly had taken place.
Judge Tay noted that the resolution of this appeal focused on the assembly and had no effect on the conviction and appeals of the smugglers, who owned and distributed the drugs.
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