Aug 7, 2008
Jail for sales exec who bought drug from Aussie newsman
He bought 'Ice' from Aussie journalist who faces various drug charges
By Khushwant Singh
SALES executive Sani Saidi, 31, was jailed for 10 months on Thursday for having 0.15g of methamphetamine or 'Ice'.
He pleaded guilty to having the drug on July 16 evening at the ground floor lift lobby of a block of flats in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6.
He also admitted to buying the drug from Australian journalist Peter Gerard Lloyd in a room in the York Hotel on July 9.
Sani told the court said that he was sorry for what he had done.
Although noting that Sani was a first offender and the drug was for his own consumption, District Judge Wong Keen Onn said that the High Court had ruled that a jail sentence was necessary in the public interest.
Lloyd, the South Asia bureau chief for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is currently out on $60,000 bail.
Besides the trafficking charge of selling the drug to Sani, Lloyd is also accused of possessing 0.41g of 'Ice' that was allegedly found on him when he was arrested on July 16.
The New Delhi-based journalist has also been charged with consumption and possessing utensils stained with ketamine and methamphetamine.
Lloyd does not face the death penalty because the amount he is accused of trafficking is not enough to make it a capital offence.
But the trafficking charge still carries a minimum jail term of five years and at least five strokes of the cane.
The other charges all carry punishments of jail terms and fines.
His next court date will be on Monday.
His passport has been impounded.
Jail for sales exec who bought drug from Aussie newsman
He bought 'Ice' from Aussie journalist who faces various drug charges
By Khushwant Singh
SALES executive Sani Saidi, 31, was jailed for 10 months on Thursday for having 0.15g of methamphetamine or 'Ice'.
He pleaded guilty to having the drug on July 16 evening at the ground floor lift lobby of a block of flats in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6.
He also admitted to buying the drug from Australian journalist Peter Gerard Lloyd in a room in the York Hotel on July 9.
Sani told the court said that he was sorry for what he had done.
Although noting that Sani was a first offender and the drug was for his own consumption, District Judge Wong Keen Onn said that the High Court had ruled that a jail sentence was necessary in the public interest.
Lloyd, the South Asia bureau chief for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is currently out on $60,000 bail.
Besides the trafficking charge of selling the drug to Sani, Lloyd is also accused of possessing 0.41g of 'Ice' that was allegedly found on him when he was arrested on July 16.
The New Delhi-based journalist has also been charged with consumption and possessing utensils stained with ketamine and methamphetamine.
Lloyd does not face the death penalty because the amount he is accused of trafficking is not enough to make it a capital offence.
But the trafficking charge still carries a minimum jail term of five years and at least five strokes of the cane.
The other charges all carry punishments of jail terms and fines.
His next court date will be on Monday.
His passport has been impounded.
