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Appeal against Metro family scion’s acquittal in drug case dismissed

This article is more than 12 months old

The High Court yesterday dismissed an appeal by the prosecution and upheld a district court decision that Metro family scion Ong Jenn was not guilty of abetment to traffic in drugs.

Ong, 43, was originally charged with two counts of abetment to traffic in 92.68g of cannabis and 385.1g of cannabis mixture.

The charges relate to cannabis found on Ong's drug supplier, Mohamad Ismail Abdul Majid, who was arrested on Oct 30, 2014.

Prosecutors contended Ong had ordered the cannabis with the intention of trafficking the drugs to others.

Ong was acquitted in May last year. The trial judge accepted his explanation that the drugs were meant for his own consumption and reduced the charges to attempted possession.

JAIL

Ong is now serving a two-year jail term. In July this year, prosecutors appealed against the acquittal.

Yesterday, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng agreed with the trial judge that the charges for abetment of trafficking have not been made out.

She was not convinced by the prosecution's argument that it was absurd for Ong to order more drugs for himself when he had 360g of cannabis at home.

"While this might be somewhat of a stockpile, there was no evidence this was well beyond his consumption needs," she said.

As for text messages between Ong and two female friends that the prosecution relied on to show that he had agreed to sell or share the cannabis with them, Justice Hoo noted that the two women were not called as prosecution witnesses.

The case was adjourned to Nov 1 to hear the prosecution's appeal for at least three years in jail on the attempted possession charges.

Ong also faces another set of drug charges relating to cannabis found in his home.

COURT & CRIME