Trial
Singaporean laws against drug trafficking are to the effect that if a person is found with more than 2 grams of diamorphine, then the court will presume that he is trafficking, unless it is proved that the drug is not for that purpose. If more than 15 grams of diamorphine is found in his possession, the person faces the mandatory death penalty if found guilty.
These two aspects of Singapore law, the non-requirement for proof of mens rea (guilty intention) and mandatory sentencing, have been criticised for being inconsistent with international legal standards. Tochi's lawyers put up a spirited defence. Since the basic element of crime is mens rea, the defence sought to prove that Tochi has no mens rea, that he was just an 18 year-old from a Nigerian village who just wanted to further his career in football and came across Mr. Smith who took advantage of him. More so, there was enough evidence that Tochi was not aware that he was in possession of diamorphine. According to the defence, if Tochi was aware of that, he would have fled when he was notified by the hotel staff that the police was called. He never did, neither did he even attempt to dispose the substances. Rather, he stayed in the transit area of the airport until about 20 minutes later when the police arrived. Thus the conduct of the young man was consistent with his mistaken belief that he was only in possession of African herbs meant for a sick man as opposed to being in possession of diamorphine.
In his judgement, Justice Kan Ting Chiu noted that Tochi might not have known that the capsules contained diamorphine. He wrote that "There was no direct evidence that knew the capsules contained diamorphine. There was nothing to suggest that Smith had told him they contained diamorphine, or that he had found that out of his own." paragraph 42 SGHC 233.
Notwithstanding, Kan found Tochi guilty, stating that "Tochi should have known and therefore he is guilty". Both Tochi and Malachy were sentenced to death.
Read more about this topic: Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi
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