A Malaysian Court of Appeal today March 8th upturned the death sentence handed down to a 31 year old Nigerian man identified as Abuchi Ngwoke, by a Malaysian High Court for trafficking 251.66 grammes of methamphetamine into Malaysia in May 2012.

The Malaysian High Court had sentenced Abuchi to death after he was arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on May 23rd 2012 and taken to the Melaka General hospital where some precious stones he swallowed, tested positive for methamphetamine.

Abuchi through his counsel, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, had approached the Malaysian Appeal Court to appeal the High court’s judgment, arguing that he never knew the precious stones which was handed to him by his Nigerian friend named Chibike in Nigeria was laced with 251.66 grammes of methamphetamine.

The Malaysian Court of Appeal ruled that there were merits on the issue raised by Abuchi’s counsel. The judges then sentenced Abuchi to 20 years in jail and 10 strokes of whipping and ordered that his jail sentence should begin from the date of his arrest which was on May 23rd 2012.