Man Who Sold Cannabis Oil To Help Patients Suffering From Cancer Escapes Death Penalty

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The judgement came yesterday, 17 January, in the apex court in Putrajaya, which was presided by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and joined by Federal Court judges Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal.

The court allowed his appeal on two counts of trafficking. Hence, the offences have been substituted with possession under Section 9 of the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA), reported Bernama.

The court still found the 31-year-old engineer guilty of possessing various kinds of cannabis.

According to Free Malaysia Today, Lukman was sentenced to five years' jail on each count of possession — the maximum incarceration penalty under the provision — but the sentences are allowed to run concurrently.

In other words, he will only serve five years in total.

"If not for the whipping, he should be freed immediately as the seven-year jail term has been completed, with a one-third remission," Hisyam told Free Malaysia Today after the proceedings on Wednesday.

Initially, Lukman was charged with three counts of drug trafficking, which is punishable by death.

In August 2018, the Shah Alam High Court found him guilty on three charges of trafficking 3,010ml of delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis extract), 1,422g of delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, and 279.81g of cannabis.

Following which, last year, the Court of Appeal reduced one of the three charges to possession, while maintaining two charges for trafficking.

He was sentenced to seven years' jail and 10 strokes of the cane for possession and to death for trafficking.

Lukman and his defence team only appealed to the Federal Court against the conviction for trafficking.

The judgement yesterday overruled the Court of Appeal's conviction for trafficking. Therefore, he has escaped the gallows.

Before the ruling yesterday, Hisyam defended his client by saying the prosecution could not prove the weight and volume of the drugs as stated in the charge sheet.

According to him, the chemist did not carry out a quantitative analysis of the drugs, reported Bernama.

Deputy public prosecutor Samihah Razali submitted that the chemist did not carry out the quantitative analysis as he contended it was unnecessary to do so.

Hisyam also argued that the admission of the exhibits was wrong in law because they were tendered in absence of the trial judge, adding that his client's offences are not caught within the scope of the DDA as he was merely selling it as medicinal oil.

In past proceedings, the court heard that Lukman used cannabis oil to treat patients who were suffering from ailments that were difficult to treat with legal medicines, such as cancer.

When he was first sentenced to death, Lukman's case went on to catch global attention for Malaysia's 'ultra-tough' law against cannabis possession.

It even made then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir and a handful of lawmakers speak out against Lukman's sentence, before finally mobilising the then Cabinet to repeal mandatory capital punishment in the country.