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A convicted drug trafficker in Singapore escaped the death penalty and got life imprisonment instead after the Court of Appeal overturned his sentence in a narrow 3-2 decision.

Roszaidi bin Osman, 50, was convicted and sentenced previously for handing two packets of heroin to his heavily pregnant wife without telling her they were drugs.

The woman, Azidah binte Zainal, did not know she was given heroin.

Roszaidi was charged with trafficking a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act for his act of passing the substance to his spouse.

He was convicted of trafficking 32.54g of pure heroin by the High Court in January 2019 and sentenced to death.

Roszaidi appealed, and his lawyer, Eugene Thuraisingam, sought to have his sentence reduced to life imprisonment on the grounds that he was suffering from an abnormality of mind that substantially impaired his mental responsibility.

Judges' decision

On Dec. 1, the majority of the five-judge panel -- Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Judith Prakash and Belinda Ang -- said Roszaidi's decision to traffick drugs was largely influenced by his need to obtain drugs to feed his addiction as he suffered from major depressive disorder and substance use disorder.

The minority, Justices Andrew Phang and Steven Chong, concluded that Roszaidi's rational judgement was not sufficiently impaired at the time and was thinking in a logical and organised manner.

Facts of the case

Roszaidi's exposure to drugs started early in life, according to the judgement.

He started consuming cannabis at the age of 10 with his friends.

He would use money given by his mother and grandmother for food to purchase cannabis.

Subsequently, throughout his adult life, Roszaidi was plagued by drug-related problems.

From March 1990, when he was 18, to October 2015, Roszaidi had spent up to 18 years -- between the ages of 18 to 43 -- either in prison for drug-related offences or under supervision or undergoing treatment for drug abuse, according to the court's estimation.

He was subsequently arrested for trafficking two packets of heroin.

Timeline

Roszaidi started to suffer from depression in May 2015, following the deaths of his mother and his grandmother.

He would obtain much of his supply from the drugs he was to deliver.

He consumed heroin, methamphetamine and dormicum, and his habit escalated.

In July 2015, he began delivering drugs to feed his drug habits.

On Oct. 6, 2015, Roszaidi called his friend, Mohammad Azli Mohammad Salleh, to drive him to collect some drugs for a job.

While waiting for further instructions on what to do with the drugs, Roszaidi called his wife as he needed her to "come down to take something" from him and to bring a plastic bag.

He did not tell her that he was handing her drugs.

Azidah, who was pregnant at the time, waited along the road.

When Roszaidi drove by, he wound down the car window, took the plastic bag from Azidah and placed the drugs inside before handing it back to her through the car window.

The act of passing his wife the plastic bag with drugs forms the action of the drug trafficking offence of which Roszaidi was convicted.

Split decision ruling

At the time, Roszaidi suffered from major depressive disorder (MDD) and substance use disorder (SUD).

The three out of five judges were of the opinion that the combination of MDD and SUD had "substantially impaired Roszaidi's ability to resist doing what he did".

They opined:

"Roszaidi's decision to traffic drugs could not be characterised as a reasoned choice or the consequence of ration judgment but rather was the product of a disordered mind... These mental disorders impaired his ability to control his actions to the extent that his overriding preoccupation at the relevant time was procuring and consuming drugs."

Roszaidi's act of giving the drugs to Azidah was more likely influenced by his MDD and SUD, both directly and indirectly, it was reasoned.

However, the dissenting judges argued that Roszaidi "failed to prove that his impaired ability to control his impulse to consume drugs sufficiently influenced his decision to traffic the drugs to his wife".

They reasoned he became scared when he realised that the drugs were heavier than expected and he offloaded the drugs to his wife for safekeeping.

The dissenting judges continued: "(Roszaidi) was thinking in a logical and organised manner at the material time. That Azidah was implicated was an unintended consequence. He had erroneously assessed the risks."

Top photo from Getty Images