MALAYSIA. COURT AMENDS CHARGE, MAN ESCAPES THE GALLOWS

Shafie Ghani, a stall owner sentenced to death for drug trafficking, escaped the gallows in Malaysia after the Court of Appeal amended the charge against him.
Justices Datuk Mokhtar Sidin, Datuk James Foong and Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin amended the charge against Shafie, 38, who had been in remand for 13 years, from one of trafficking in 11.57kg of cannabis to possession. The judges unanimously allowed Shafie's appeal and substituted his death sentence with 20 years' imprisonment and 10 strokes of the rotan.
Shafie, who was one of the longest-serving remand prisoners in a drug trafficking case, was ordered to serve his jail term from the date of his arrest on November 24, 1993. On July 18, 1996, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had convicted Shafie of trafficking in 11,570gm of cannabis and sentenced him to death.