Sentenced to death by hanging, Chan King Yu’s conviction was finally quashed on 14 November 2008 after Malaysia’s highest court found police had fabricated evidence against him.
Chan, a British national from Hong Kong, was arrested in Kuala Lumpur in June 2000 after police alleged they had found 9 kilograms of methamphetamines in his hotel room.
Under Malaysian law, the conventional doctrine of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is reversed – requiring Chan to demonstrate his innocence at trial. He was tried in front of a single judge in 2002 and was sentenced to death by hanging.
The death sentence was affirmed by the appeal court but, with the assistance of Reprieve, Chan’s conviction was finally quashed by Malaysia’s Federal Court (the highest court in the country) in November 2008.
Chan’s appeal lawyer Dato’ Mohammed Shafee Abdullah had uncovered evidence that the police search had been conducted in an improper and suspicious way. The police had entered the hotel room where the drugs were found twice, not once as they claimed at trial – and the first occasion was prior to Chan’s arrest. The Federal Court’s three-judge panel therefore ruled that there was “a clear fabrication of evidence” and Chan was acquitted.