Two brothers lose appeals against death sentence for drug trafficking in Putrajaya court

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 11 — Two brothers today lost in their appeals in the Federal Court against the conviction and death sentence for trafficking drugs, eight years ago.

Justice Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, who led a three-member panel, said the judges were not persuaded by the counsel’s argument that the appeals by the appellants, S. Ramani Raxen and Devendran against the conviction had merit.

Justice Ong said the bench was also not convinced that there was suppression of evidence or non-calling of a prosecution witness and non-production of a closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage at the crime scene.

“The High Court trial judge had also given proper consideration to the defence case. In fact, there was direct evidence on the commission of the crime. As such, the conviction of the appellants is safe and the appeals are dismissed,” said judge Ong, who sat with Puan Seri Zaleha Yusof and Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal.

Ramani, 38, and Devendran, 40, were sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court on April 7, 2017, after it found them guilty of trafficking 339.3 grammes of heroin and 140.4 grammes of monoacetylmorphine together with two others who are still at large at a petrol kiosk in Jalan Semenyih, Kajang about 11.20am on June 20, 2013.

The conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeal on January 31, 2019.

The brothers were represented by lawyer Afifuddin Ahmad Hafifi while deputy public prosecutor Ku Hayati Ku Haron appeared for the prosecution. — Bernama