High Court dismisses drug convict’s appeal

SIBU: A 31-year-old man’s appeal against a 14-year jail term and 12 strokes of the rotan for possessing 39.71 grammes (g) of methamphetamine was dismissed by the High Court on Thursday (Nov. 12).

Judicial Commissioner Alvin Leong Yin Yuan dismissed the appeal by Ashley Macedon Jepit, upholding the Sibu Sessions Court’s decision on September 25, 2025.

The Sessions Court had sentenced Ashley to 14 years’ imprisonment from the date of his arrest and 12 strokes of the rotan.

In delivering his decision, Leong said the court had previously allowed a preliminary objection by the prosecution on June 29 and directed the appellant to file a revised written submission by July 20.

The revised submission was to be confined strictly to the specific grounds stated in his original Petition of Appeal. However, no revised submission had been filed by the deadline.

“No submission has been filed since. The appellant has failed to prosecute his appeal with due diligence and I will dismiss this appeal,” Leong ruled.

During the proceedings, counsel Reena Chong, standing in for lead counsel Rosli Gapor, informed the court that no further submissions had been filed by the counsel in charge and sought further directions.

Deputy Public Prosecutor, Mark Kenneth Netto of the Attorney General’s Chambers (Sibu Branch), maintained the prosecution’s preliminary objection, pointing out that the defence had also made no attempt to apply for leave to amend its defective Petition of Appeal since the last hearing.

Court records show that Ashley had filed his Petition of Appeal on December 15, 2025, relying only on three broad, general assertions against his conviction – claiming the trial judge’s verdict was against the weight of evidence, failed to address an unspecified “material gap”, and wrongly dismissed his defence as a bare denial.

However, in his subsequent written submissions, the defence attempted to introduce sweeping new technical and factual challenges – including disputes over the 39.71g drug weight, chemist evidence, statutory presumptions under Section 37(d) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, adverse inference under Section 114(g) of the Evidence Act 1950, witness inconsistencies, and the role of an individual named ‘Dimus’.

Netto had successfully argued in his March 31 preliminary objection that under Section 307(6) of the Criminal Procedure Code, an appellant is legally bound by the specific particulars pleaded in their petition, warning that permitting unpleaded arguments at the eleventh hour amounted to an unfair “trial by ambush” that caused real prejudice to the prosecution.

Ashley was originally convicted under Section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, punishable under Section 39A(2) of the same Act and read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code.

The offence was committed at about 7:40 pm on February 27, 2023, at a car park behind a hotel building along Jalan Ding Lik Kong/Jalan Pahlawan here, where he was found in possession of 39.71g (nett weight) of methamphetamine in furtherance of common intention.